Saving Cybertron
by TVfan
Summary: Optimus and Queen begin the final battle with the Tripredicus Council, knowing that they have to win to save the captured sparks and to save their homeworld.
1. Chapter 1

Beast Wars and all characters and things related are copyright and trademark of Hasbro and Mainframe Entertainment. This work, however, is the original work of the author.

Note: This story takes place immediately after "Journeys".

Saving Cybertron

By TVfan

**Underground Caves**

Everyone seemed to gather in the central area of the present underground base that Optimus Primal and Queen had agreed to use to fight the Tripredicus Council and try to prevent them from achieving their goals of bringing Unicron back.

"So we are in agreement that that the Tripredicus Council Headquarters is to be attacked?" Queen questioned to Optimus directly, knowing full well that the Maximal would not go back on his promise.

"After their drone factories have been destroyed," Optimus answered, "Otherwise, if we fail to catch all of the Tripredicus Council, they could simply retreat and call for reinforcements. Once those factories are destroyed, then we'll attack."

Queen glared at Optimus Primal and then at Dinobot who wasn't standing that far away. The male raptor looked very much like the warrior she remembered, but she couldn't fully understand why he seemed to be undermining her to help Optimus. She could understand opposing Megatron, but he was a prisoner now, himself. Dinobot was no free to restore Predicon rule, yet he was deliberately blocking her attempts to insure that her 'Resistance' movement of Predicons and Maximals was the dominant faction after the Tripredicus Council was beaten. But, while these actions angered her, there wasn't much she could do about it, and it didn't look like Optimus was going to cave on the issue.

"Fine," Queen finally caved, sensing that the rest of Optimus's followers weren't about to let her bully their leader, "We'll destroy the factories first. Then we'll take on their leadership."

Optimus then nodded, "How many drone factories do they have?"

"In this area?" Queen sighed, "at least four. All of them produce every drone that the Tripredicus Council uses."

"Non-specialized?" Rattrap chuckled, "sounds like a bungled operation to me."

"It was done to insure that the Council could field an army should one or more factories be destroyed," Queen growled back at the transmetal rat.

"Yeah, but them drones are useless, largely," Rattrap shot back, "if you had a factory that produced one type of drone that stood a chance against a transformer, you could build enough of them to be able to hold off most attacks. Under this current system, even destroying one factory would hurt."

"So you would favor ignoring the factories?" Queen asked, hoping the rat's big mouth would help her.

"No, I'm saying this could be easier then originally thought," Rattrap answered with a confident grin, "One or two charges here and there, and they're out four factories and stuck with a weak army."

"Alright, who are you and what have you done with the real Rattrap?" Cheetor teased with a slight chuckle.

"Hey!" Rattrap answered, "I can be confident when I want ta be."

Optimus then stepped forward to try and get things back on task. Queen wanted to assault he Tripredicus Council Headquarters, and the longer they argued over specifics, the harder it would be to deal with Queen and her resistance fighters.

"With the factories out of the way, assaulting the Council's citadel will be easier as they won't be able to replace their losses," Optimus spoke, moving himself between Rattrap and Cheetor and Queen, "If you could tell us where those factories are."

"Wired, Runner, Grease, and I will lead your teams to the factories," Queen spoke, "while everyone else takes up positions to storm the Tripredicus Council Headquarters."

Optimus then nodded.

"I will go with you to the first factory," Optimus spoke, "Rattrap will go with Runner. Depthcharge will go with Wired, and Cybershark will go with Grease. Destroying the factories is to be done as quickly and as quietly as possible."

"You're only sending two transformers after these factories?" Silverbolt asked, "Forgive me, sir, but isn't that a bit unwise? Suppose they're guarded?"

"Given recent activity, I'd think they're actually going to pull back toward their own headquarters," Optimus answered, "any guards that are there are likely to be drones which can be easily dealt with. And even if they are more heavily defended, the rest of the group can easily turn to aid one of the strike teams."

"And who will be leading the rest of the forces?" Queen asked.

"Dinobot will see to the placing of our forces until the teams striking at the factories have finished their mission and can rejoin the main group," Optimus answered, "His military experience will be important in that regard."

Queen found herself unable to argue against that point. Dinobot was an excellent warrior and could easily deal with any battlefield obstacle that could pop up, and even though he was blocking her attempts to take over Cybertron once the Tripredicus Council was beaten, she had to admit, he would be needed to insure that the Tripredicus Council was defeated.

"Very well," Queen spoke, "I trust he can tolerate having Terrorsaur as his executive officer for this operation?"

"So long as he understands that he is no the commander," Dinobot spoke in a very firm voice as he stared back into Queen's optics.

Queen then glanced back at Terrorsaur who had so far remained silent.

"I will let Dinobot lead," Terrorsaur then spoke in a calm voice, "no one need worry."

"For now," Queen then nodded, and turned back to Optimus and the other Maximals around him, "I trust that this will be sufficient for the opening stages of this final battle?"

Optimus slowly nodded and then turned to Rhinox who stood nearby.

"Rhinox, I will need you to remain here, both to guard the base and to keep our CR tanks ready and online," Optimus spoke, "judging how big this battle will be, you'll be having a lot of wounded coming in."

"I'll be ready," Rhinox answered.

"Alright," Optimus replied, "We all have our missions. Let's go."

**Tripredicus Council Headquarters**

The three Council members sat quietly at their conference table, largely reviewing recent activity by Optimus Primal and the various resistance movements around Cybertron.

"What was the building they destroyed yesterday?" General Ramhorn asked in a very frustrated voice.

"Our primary munitions plant and warehouse," General Seaclamp answered, "our battle fleet to drive the Maximals and disloyal Predicons from their off world colonies will be delayed by at least three months, maybe more."

"New drones will also have to wait that long before their weapons can either be given to them or charged," General Cicadacon added "Which weakens our overall position."

"He's getting aggressive," Ramhorn grumbled, "this latest attack hurts us."

"It's too aggressive to be Primal," Cicadacon spoke, "I'd tend to think it's the resistance fighters using Primal's forces as 'grunts'. From what we know of Primal's record before the Axalon chased after the Darkside, Primal was not a warrior and in the few classes the Maximals gave him on 'warfare' he was ranked as extremely cautious."

Both Seaclamp and Ramhorn looked at their colleague with some disbelief evident in their faces.

"Perhaps the 'Beast Wars' against Megatron changed him," Seaclamp spoke, "given him some actual combat experience. You can't expect him to have beaten Megatron and not learned something about combat."

"Not to mention the number of transformers that arrived with Primal," Ramhorn added, "I doubt they'd all abandon the leader that lead them through the Beast Wars."

"The few reports we got out of Ravage before he cut the link or before his ship was destroyed was that Optimus had changed little," Cicadacon answered, "If the Resistance is not controlling Primal, then Primal is at least working with them as partners."

Seaclamp and Ramhorn then sighed heavily.

"Either way, it's still aggressive," Ramhorn spoke after a few moments, "and since we only have a handful of transformers following us, the situation puts us in grave danger."

"How so?" Cicadacon retorted, "we have more then enough drones to defeat any transformer, even these new and powerful armor designs that Primal and his followers are using."

"But that would only be in a one at a time fight, and we would have to have them in rather open terrain to target them either from space or from ground mounted missile batteries," Seaclamp reminded him, "when there's been more then one of them, they've been near impossible for our drones to handle them in the numbers we've had available."

"We need to build more," Ramhorn said urgently, "If Primal or the Resistance is getting more aggressive, we will need many more drones in order to stop them, or to at least buy time for us to recall reinforcements from our other colonies or workers from the Unicron restructuring station."

There was an awkward silence for a few moments before Seaclamp spoke in a rather nervous voice.

"There might be another way for us to strengthen ourselves to fight with Primal and the Resistance," Seaclamp spoke nervously, "although it sickens me to think of it."

"What is it?" Cicadacon asked curiously.

"We upgrade ourselves with… 'organic' type armor," Seaclamp said slowly, "use Primal's own kind of armor against him. We could easily reformat ourselves back after he's been defeated."

"Organic forms?" Ramhorn gasped.

"They're an insult to things Cybertronian," Cicadacon growled, "Surely you must be joking."

"It was only a suggestion," Seaclamp defended himself, "and even I do not like the idea entirely. But as I said before, we can be reformatted back after Primal's defeat."

"No," Ramhorn said firmly "for now, we shall remain pure. Our primary task is to figure out where Primal and the Resistance will strike next."

"What do we do, then?" Cicadacon questioned.

"They're likely planning an attack against us," Ramhorn sighed heavily, "they've had success of late and they've learned of our plans to resurrect Unicron. The only option they have is to assault our headquarters."

Seaclamp gave a very frustrated growl before speaking, "Recall all sparked transformers on Cybetron to our base here and station all available drones here. We can't let them take our Council area."

"Why not evacuate the building?" Cicadacon offered, "let them take an empty citadel. They'd gain nothing but a building they'd have to defend or abandon."

"We won't have time," Seaclamp sighed in a defeated voice, "and we don't have anywhere to evacuate to. By the time all that is done, Primal or the Resistance will have attacked. We will have to repeal their attack against us."

The other two Tripredicus Council members sighed heavily. They both knew the situation was not one that they liked. The conquest of Cybertron from the Maximal Elders and the weeding out of disloyal Predicons not descended from Unicron had gone so well that they never anticipated a situation where they would suffer a setback so close to their base.

Sure they had not had much success in attacking the colony worlds, and the Maximal protectorates had not yet been seriously attacked, but they were on the fringe of the Tripredicus Council's concerns. Once Unicron had been resurrected, those problems could very easily be dealt with. When the resistance began on Cybertron, they were few in number, under armed, and unable to transform which made any damage they took serious. They never posed a serious threat to their rule on Cybertron, and once Unicron had been resurrected, they would have likely given up out of fear.

But, the return of Optimus Primal and his Maximals changed things. The resistance had stolen supplies needed to repair themselves and keep their fight going, and now they had made it impossible for them to arm their drones or ships, which would make everything dependent on getting Unicron back online. Ramhorn, Seaclamp, and Cicadacon all hated the situation. At present, they had to win in order to save their vision of Cybertron.

**Elsewhere**

Rattrap stuck his head up through a small fluid vent in the bottom of the first factor that they had been sent to destroy. Other then the sound of the mechanical parts moving, nearly everything was silent as they came out on to the factory floor. The transmetal rat, however, stayed low, and did manage to spot two new drones, that resembled motorcycles patrolling the upper floors.

"Lightly guarded," Runner commented as he spotted the cycle drones.

"Yeah," Rattrap nodded, returning to beast mode to reduce his size, "but even still. We gotta be careful. They could have an army of drones nearby and it only takes one to sound the alarm."

"Leave them to me," Runner spoke confidently and then broke into a dead sprint.

"Wait!" Rattrap whispered after him, but it was too late.

Runner ran at full speed toward the wall and then straight up the wall before leaping onto the catwalk that the cycle drones were on. Before the cycle drones even turned to investigate the noise, Runner threw a small metallic object at each drone. The thrown weapon exploded, destroying the two cycle drones on impact.

"Okay, Rattrap," Runner spoke down to the transmetal rat who was sitting on the ground totally surprised by what had just happened.

"How in the…?" Rattrap started to stammer as he returned to his robot mode again.

"I call them 'star bombs'," Runner answered, "I came up with the idea of packing explosives into a throwing star, but until Terrorsaur destroyed their munitions plant and brought us some supplies, I never had the ability to test out the idea."

"Looks like they worked," Rattrap commented, "but how did you run up there? I mean not even Cheetor could do that."

"I've always been into running," Runner answered, "hence my name. It may not help me lose weight, like it does for some organics, but I found it to be an excellent activity before all of this started."

Rattrap only shook his head and began looking around the factory. He was certain he could easily destroy the place, but he needed to know where to place the charges to destroy both the factory tools themselves and to collapse the building. Runner began doing the same thing from the crosswalk he was on, and quickly spotted something on the roof.

"If we can get a couple of charges on those beams there near the center I think we can easily bring the roof down," Runner called down to Rattrap who was placing a charge near one of the factory pieces.

"Run it up there then," Rattrap answered back, tossing two charges up to the resistance member.

Runner easily placed the charges and then ran back down to stand beside Rattrap.

"Now what?" Runner asked.

"Now comes the fun part," Rattrap smiled and lead the way outside.

After checking the street to see no drones on patrol, they crossed the street and moved behind a large metal cable sticking out of the wall of the building. Once there, Rattrap ignited the charges they had placed with a remote. Runner watched as a series of explosions went off inside the factory and then saw the factory itself fall on itself. He then glanced to see the transmetal rat grinning.

"Now to regroup with Chopperface," Rattrap spoke and then turned to head down the alley.

Depthcharge and Wired, meanwhile, came up in an alley across the street from the second Tripredicus Council drone factory to find it slightly better guarded then the one that Rattrap and Runner had just destroyed. There were two jet drones hovering outside the doors to the factory, and there were sounds of movement by other drones coming from the surrounding area.

Unafraid of a fight, however, Depthcharge readied his shark blaster and advanced on the two jet drones. Wired fired behind him with a pair of smaller blasters. The jet drones moved as if to fire, but the transmetal manta ray was faster and fired one powerful blast from his shark blaster that destroyed the two drones and blew a hole in the door and wall of the factory.

"There, one easy entrance, and they can't jump us when we come in," Depthcharge spoke confidently as they approached the hole he had blasted in the wall of the building.

Two tank drones then came into view and fired immediately at the two transformers. Depthcharge dove to his right and did his best to keep his larger size from being an easy target while Wired rolled forward. The shots the two drones fired missed both transformers and Wired then destroyed to two drones with two shots from the blasters he was carrying. No new drones appeared after the first two tank drones were destroyed, and both Depthcharge and Wired slowly made their way into the factory.

Once inside the factory, they found it devoid of any other guards and even devoid of some sort of maintenance bot to run the factory. The machines that made the Tripredicus Council's drones were still working, but there was nothing there to monitor them.

"This is rather strange," Wired commented as they made their way through the factory, "even if they don't have much in the way of guards, there should at least be some other type of drone to run the factory… or transformers loyal to the Council, but there's no one here."

"Maybe," Depthcharge shrugged, "but it's an opportunity to destroy this place quickly and easily. I'll take that. We can worry about the lack of workers later."

Depthcharge then powered up his blaster to its full charge and aimed a series of battery packs that were being installed in one of the drones being built by the factory and fired. The resulting blast set off a chain reaction that sent explosions rattling throughout the factory. As batteries and unfinished drones began exploding left and right, Depthcharge grabbed Wired by the arm and took off into the air, blasting through the roof as he went.

Shortly after making it out, they both watched as the factory exploded in its entirety, sending fragments of metal passed them while that which didn't explode burned on the ground.

"Don't do that again," Wired growled in a semi-panicked voice, "Rattrap gave us the charges so that we wouldn't have to be in the factory when it blows up."

"This was quicker and easier," Depthcharge answered, "besides, we'll be able to regroup with the others much easier this way."

"If the Tripredicus Council doesn't detect us and send an army of drones after us," Wired grumbled.

Depthcharge showed no fear and flew on.

Cybershark leaped into the air in beast mode and looked around to see that the entrance to the factory was just one hundred yards away and that there were walls around the factory, but that that there weren't any guards on them. As his body descended back toward the ground, the Maximal Great White Shark altered his density to be able to 'swim' through the ground as if it were water.

Once back in the tunnel he landed before the Resistance Member known as Grease. They hyena transformer looked rather impatient with the Maximal he had lead to the location.

"There are no guards about," Cybershark announced, "We can get in easily."

"Good," Grease answered and pushed Cybershark aside to head up a step ladder to the ground level, "We've already lost too much time dealing with the tunneler drones on the way here."

"I didn't call them there," Cybershark answered him defensively, "They just happened to show up, and we did destroy all of them."

"We've lost time," Grease answered, "at least two of the factories have already been destroyed and when Queen arrives with the main assault units, they will attack the Tripredicus Council directly."

"Optimus wouldn't let her do that," Cybershark retorted, "but we'll hurry anyway."

They then slowly opened the main doors to the factory to be greeted by several completed tank drones that were ready for battle rolling right toward them. Two cycle drones stood near the factory's main control panel on the far side of the room.

"Slag," Grease cursed as the completed tank drones began firing.

Neither transformer was able to get out of the way of the shots fired and they were both blasted back several feet. Thankfully though, they did not get blown into the wall, and their armor managed to take the punishment from the hits they had taken.

"Don't want to take much more of that," Grease then growled and fired to grappling cables from his forearms.

The cables caught the first two tank drones moving out of the building, and once they made contact, Grease ran an electric current through the cables. The flow of power easily overloaded the circuitry in the drones and they exploded, knocking the remaining drones back, reopening the path for Grease and Cybershark to get into the factory.

"Now," Grease urged, "while they're off balance. We can't let the cycle drones call for help or reinforcements."

"Right," Cybershark nodded and used his beast mode's ability to 'swim' to speed toward the cycle drones who remained near the control panel.

Grease, meanwhile, found himself caught by the tank drones as they recovered, and the hyena transformer settled in for a fight against he drones around him. The drones fired a handful of shots at him, but this time, Grease was able to avoid these shots, and two of them actually took out two of the tank drones themselves, lessening the odds against him.

The two cycle drones, meanwhile, stood still while watching the battle. They, however, did not notice Cybershark's approach until the Maximal seemingly appeared out of the floor and seized the first cycle drone in his jaws, easily destroying it. Cybershark then took his robot mode and used rotating 'claw hand' to shred the remaining drone. Once the drones were out of the way, Cybershark turned to the panel to see that it did have a marked 'stop' button, and Cybershark quickly used it.

To Cybershark's disappointment, the button only stopped the working of the factory's machines, not the drones that had already been built, and were keeping Grease in a dodging fight.

"Hang on, Grease!" Cybershark yelled as he looked for a way to defeat the drones attacking the other transformer.

He noticed some long beams in the ceiling, and hoped that they would do the trick. Cybershark fired a pair of missiles at the two beams, which fell and crushed several drones an leaving Grease unharmed. Grease then finished off the last two drones with his tazer weapons.

"Nice trick with the ceiling beams," Grease admitted as Cybershark, "and it actually gives me an idea on how to destroy this place."

Grease once again fired his grappling hooks at the beams, and once they connected, he began pulling on them, hoping to pull the buildings internal supports out. In this, Grease was successful, and both he and Cybershark rushed out of the building as it collapsed behind them.

"Great job!" Cybershark congratulated is partner.

"Yeah, we're wasting time," Grease only answered in reply.

Optimus and Queen, meanwhile moved on a more above ground path to the last and final factory that had to be destroyed. Both were in beast mode and taken the route they were taking to avoid having to deal with any tunneler drones that were still patrolling the underground. Optimus could also tell that Queen was visibly frustrated with something, likely something to do with his refusal to bow down to her or with the fact that Dinobot wasn't behaving as she remembered.

"You know," Optimus commented lightly, "you'd feel a lot better if you let go of this idea that you need to rule Cybertron. As I said to Megatron when the Beast Wars began, there has been peace between the Maximals and Predicons for centuries before all of this. There is no need to start it all up again."

"You've fought with Dinobot and recruited another of Megatron's Predicons, and you think that?" Queen answered, "Your faction has ruled Cybertron for centuries while mine has lived at the lowest possible levels of poverty."

"If your faction didn't pour ALL of its credit into very militaristic policies, your faction wouldn't have had to wallow in poverty," Optimus answered, "I've read the treaties that closed the Great War. While it granted political rule of Cybertron and control of all Cybertronian actions to the Autobots and thus the Maximals now, it did not demand Decipticon and Predicon slavery. The terms were actually quite generous, but many Decipticon and now Predicon leaders have continued to play to militaristic sentiments that refuse to accept that they lost the Great War."

"In other words, we should have become Autobots and Maximals," Queen retorted sarcastically, "you know that without Predicons and Predicon militarism, you wouldn't have Dinobot, and Megatron might have won the Beast Wars that you fought."

"Dinobot is driven by a strong code of honor," Optimus answered, "he ISN'T a militarist. He may like fighting more then the average Maximal, but I've never known him to fight an under armed or unprepared opponent. And that goes against Predicon militarism and its policy of doing anything to win, even if its underhanded."

Queen didn't answer immediately while Optimus continued.

"And if there were no militarists in the Predicons, why would their be a 'Beast Wars'?" Optimus continued, "Cybertron would be at peace and we could all make a better world."

"Well that didn't happen and won't happen," Queen answered back testily.

"So all you care about is getting revenge for the Decipticon defeat in the Great War?" Optimus questioned, "You don't aspire to anything higher? Like Dinobot and his honor or even Blackarachnia and her love for Silverbolt?"

"And what is higher for me to aspire to?" Queen retorted, "all I want is political justice for my faction and the right to control that which has been denied us. If you want 'peace' so bad, then perhaps you should submit to my rule and let the Predicons rule Cybertron and control its policies."

"And let you attack Earth out of vengeance or kill Maximals for being descended from Autobots?" Optimus replied, "You're foolish if you believe I will just stand aside and ignore what is just."

"Then it would both appear to be stuck in a potential loop," Queen responded, "Likely to fight once the Tripredicus Council is destroyed… or at least divide into separate camps."

That made Optimus sigh heavily. The Beast Wars had been hard enough, but now to add the current rebellion against the Tripredicus Council, and the fact that much of the Maximal sectors of Cybertron had been ravaged by fighting, the last thing he wanted was for there to be another war for control of Cybertron when the Tripredicus Council was beaten. There had to be a way to prevent another war from starting, but Optimus wasn't entirely sure how to do that, and felt he would need Rhinox's help to figure out some sort of compromise. Maybe something that would unify the Predicon and Maximal factions so that they wouldn't have a reason to fight each other anymore.

Queen, meanwhile flew above and behind the Maximal leader. His insistence on a 'peace' between the Maximals and Predicons angered her, but a good part of her mind told her that there wasn't much she could do to stop it. Even without Dinobot, Optimus's Maximals and the Maximals that were in her resistance would be more then a match for the Predicons that weren't descended from Unicron and under her command. Dinobot's presence on the Maximal side made things more difficult, which meant that her threat of war was not one that she could likely carry out.

It was at that moment that she glanced down to see Optimus's movement through the jungle that was Cybertron's maze of towers. His beast mode seemed ideally suited to this sort of travel which Queen found herself admiring slightly. She was brought out of it as they began to approach the factory itself.

"Here we are," Queen spoke as she transformed to her robot mode and landed on the roof of the building across the street from the factory.

Optimus remained in beast mode and approached the edge of the building and looked down to see an army of drones of varying types marching or flying out and then moving in formation down the street.

"We can't go straight in," Optimus sighed, "although…"

"They could be headed for the Tripredicus Council headquarters which would ruin the second half of the plan," Queen growled.

"Exactly," Optimus nodded, "Can you take the charges?"

"Why?" Queen questioned suspiciously.

"My transmetal two armor can take more damage then you can," Optimus answered, "and my jet mode will allow me to strafe them rapidly. While I keep them distracted, you can go in and destroy the factory."

"You would distract them?" Queen asked, "even though you believe… or know that I could betray you?"

"Right now we have to work together," Optimus answered, "We don't have time to argue."

Queen slowly nodded, "I'll take the charges and will give you two minutes to provide your distraction."

Optimus quickly handed the charges to Queen and switched from his beast mode to jet mode and dove down on the drones below him. He fired rapidly as he dove down, destroying several drones in the process. What resulted was absolute chaos. The drones weren't expecting to be attacked and began firing randomly after Optimus. Their steady march quickly became a disorganized pursuit around the factor with tank drones crushing several cycle drones and shooting down at least one jet drone. Several more jet drones, flying at too high a speed, crashed into buildings near the factory trying to fire on Optimus.

Optimus took very little in the way of fire on his first pass, but was ready to be under heavy fire when he made his second pass. As he circled around, he did come under heavier fire as the tank and cycle drones fired from the ground and the jet drones zeroed in on him. Optimus unleashed everything he had on he remaining jet drones, destroying all but three and breaking up their formation as he flew through them. The move ended up giving him some damage as he took several hits from the ground and a few from the air, but his armor was still functional, and with most of the jet drones destroyed, the ground drones wouldn't stand much of a chance.

Queen, meanwhile, found that Optimus had provided a more then adequate distraction. All of the drones that had been marching out of the factory were now chasing the Maximal leader leaving the factory practically alone. As Queen hovered over one of the roof windows she could see two cycle drones inside, but they weren't looking up. She quickly dove down and fired on the two cycle drones with a blaster that fired two darts that looked like a bee's stingers.

"All too easy," Queen smiled as the two drones exploded and she set about setting the demolition charges Optimus had given her.

Optimus was preparing to make a fourth pass on the drones chasing him when he suddenly felt the massive shockwave of an explosion shake him off his flight path. He managed to recover by transforming to his robot mode, and found the shockwave had destroyed the remaining drones and did serious damage to the buildings around him.

"Need any help?" came Queen's voice from above him.

"I would think your destruction of the factory did that already," Optimus told her, "thank you."

"We need to complete our mission," Queen said firmly.

**Tripredicus Council Headquarters**

General Cicadacon looked out nervously towards one of four towers of smoke that were rising out of the skyline of the main city in the area. All were presumed to be factories, but the small 'aide' drones were yet to report back, so the Council was left to worry.

"Primal was behind this," Ramhorn growled as he approached the other Tripredicus Council member, "he had to be. Four factories destroyed, and we don't know how bad yet."

Cicadacon only sighed in response. These attacks had added more hurt to his earlier confidence that they could rebound from the string of defeats that Primal's Maximals and the Resistance had dealt them. Now it looked as if things were change for the worse. Then, General Seaclamp rushed into the room.

"Don't tell me another factory was destroyed," Cicadacon spoke in a depressed voice.

"Worse," Seaclamp answered, "We've lost three squads of tunneler drones to a large group of resistance fighters. I think Primal's followers are on their way here."

"And now everything gets worse," Cicadacon sighed heavily.

**On the Ground**

"There does not appear to be any activity between us and their 'base'," Airazor reported as she returned to the ground in beast mode, "although, the attempts to destroy the factories have already taken place, so would think that they're probably on alert at the moment."

"No doubt," Dinobot nodded, "Everyone is to assemble in these alleys and to wait for the teams that went after the factories to arrive."

"Why not attack now," Terrorsaur urged, "They'll likely send reinforcements to the factories."

"There was no sign of that," Airazor spoke.

"Besides, we do not know how many actual transformers they have with them, other then those we've already fought," Dinobot answered, "They could have more. We will wait and observe until the others arrive."

Terrorsaur looked like he might protest, but backed down under the transmetal two raptor's glare. Dinobot then turned to the others.

"All flyers are to gather on the rooftops," Dinobot spoke, "when the main attack begins, it would be best to have some bots to keep the jet drones from strafing those of us on the ground."

There were some slight nods as those that had beast modes that naturally flew, or specialized abilities that allowed them to fly, began moving toward the roof tops. Rapther came to stand beside Dinobot as he looked around the edge of a building while the others moved across the street to the other alley.

"And soon will come the great battle," Dinobot spoke softly, "one that will decide Cybertron's fate. May it be with honor."

**To Be Continued…**


	2. Chapter 2

Beast Wars and all characters and things related are copyright and trademark of Hasbro and Mainframe Entertainment. This work, however, is the original work of the author.

Note: This story takes place immediately after "Journeys".

Saving Cybertron, Chapter 2

By TVfan

**Tripredicus Council Headquarters**

General Seaclamp stood on an outdoor observation deck as the latest armies of drones arrived. The councilmember was deeply frustrated by what he saw. Nearly all of the drones were damaged, half of them seriously. He and the others had already guessed that either Optimus or the Resistance were preparing to assault their base, and they would need all their available drones to repeal the coming attack. And these drones would last for an even shorter period of time then a fully functional drone. His disappointment with these drones kept him from looking up as General Cicadacon came up behind him.

"We've made contact with a few of our ships patrolling the Cybertron sector," General Cicadacon spoke to the other councilmember, "they should arrive shortly with reinforcements."

"Transformers or drones?" Seaclamp asked back in a clearly frustrated voice.

"Drones, mostly," Cicadacon answered, "but substantially more intelligent drones then what we have here."

"That is not difficult," Seaclamp grumbled, "Has General Ramhorn determined which direction the attack will come from, yet?"

"Not yet," Cicadacon replied, "He's in the main scanning area trying to pickup any Maximal or Predicon energy signatures. Our transformers are on alert and will lead the initial attack when they're found."

"No," Seaclamp stopped him, "let the drones attack first. We don't have enough transformers here to challenge them in a direct fight. Let the drones provide a distraction and our transformers will reinforce them once the Resistance plays its hand."

Cicadacon was about to answer when he heard General Ramhorn's voice come over the radio.

"General's Cicadacon and Ramhorn, get to the scan-center, immediately," came Ramhorn's voice, "I've found them."

The two rushed with all their available speed to head toward the scan-center to find General Ramhorn looking at a projected map of the area surrounding their headquarters.

"Where are they?" Seaclamp asked quickly as he rushed in.

"About four blocks to the west of us," Ramhorn said pointing to a dotted line on the map, "they're gathered in an alley."

"What are they doing?" Cicadacon questioned as he looked at the map, "preparing to attack?"

"It appears as though they are monitoring our position," Ramhorn commented, "None of them are in the road. If they were to attack, they would be perfect targets."

"How long until our ships arrive here?" Seaclamp asked.

"At least one megacycle," Ramhorn answered him.

"Then send out the drones now," Seaclamp urged, "they will force the battle and will draw them out. Then, while they're distracted, our transformers can engage them, leaving our ships and us to deal with any that may have survive."

Ramhorn glanced to Cicadacon, who nodded. Ramhorn then nodded in agreement.

"And now, let the Battle for Cybertron begin!" Ramhorn spoke.

**Outside the Building**

Airazor and Terrorsaur both perched in their beast modes watching the Tripredicus Council headquarters, and waiting for what would likely be their attack.

"This is boring," Terrorsaur grumbled, "We should attack."

"Is that all you dream about?" Airazor questioned.

"All we're doing is sitting here," Terrorsaur retorted, "We're not even preparing for anything."

"We were ordered to wait until Optimus and the others arrived," Tigerhawk answered, "even your new leader, Queen, agreed to that."

"Doesn't change the act that this is boring," Terrorsaur grumbled.

Airazor ignored the Predicon flyer for the moment and looked out toward the Tripredicus base. The falcon transformer brought her optics to maximum focus and then backed away in surprise at what she saw.

"If you wanted a fight, Terrorsaur, I believe you've got it," Airazor spoke nervously.

Terrorsaur and Tigerhawk paused their argument to look in the direction the Tripredicus Council headquarters. Moving out from the gates was an army of drones, mostly tank drones, but there were a few cycle drones protecting their flanks, and overhead several squadrons of jet drones.

"Finally," Terrorsaur smiled.

"Dinobot, I think they're onto us!" Airazor called down to their field commander, "Their drones are attacking!"

Dinobot, on the ground, looked around the corner and then snarled at the approaching army. His orders were to wait until the groups that had gone to destroy the factories joined them, but it was clear that the Tripredicus Council was not going to give them the luxury of waiting.

"Airazor, take Terrorsaur and Waspinator and attack the jet drones," Dinobot ordered, "Draw them this way and away from their base. The rest of the flyers are to wait until their main body gets closer, and we will then put them in a crossfire."

"What if the Council sends out their transformers?" Bomb questioned, "They are tougher then the drones and three transformers can't defeat them."

"By the time they work up the courage to actually fight, their drones will be in our crossfire and we can then work from a position of numerical superiority," Dinobot grumbled, "if not… it's a risk we have to take, as our only other options are to run or let them attack us on their terms."

The stinkbug transformer gave Dinobot a very sour look, but wasn't about to start a fight with the male Maximal raptor. He hoped that the groups sent after the factories were on their way.

**Elsewhere**

Rattrap rushed as fast as he could in his vehicle mode toward the area that Dinobot an the others were supposed to be waiting for the 'factory teams' to arrive. The trip was not easy for the transmetal rat, for multiple reasons. One, was the fact that he was in the open and could easily be ambushed. The other main reason was the Resistance member he was with.

Runner was fast, not as fast as Cheetor, but still faster then Rattrap. As a result, Rattrap spent much of the time trying to keep track of the antelope transformer. But, that wasn't really the problem, as Rattrap did have to chase after Cheetor throughout the Beast Wars. The problem was Runner's nervousness. He expected to be ambushed at every street. Now, Rattrap didn't oppose caution, but Runner's stopping at every intersection ended up slowing both of them down as Rattrap crashed into him.

"We gotta keep going," Rattrap urged as he pulled himself back up, "we can't keep stopping like this… otherwise, we'll be in too many pieces to do anything."

"And run headlong into an ambush?" Runner countered, "I don't know what you went through in the Beast Wars, but things have not been good here, and regardless of how weak the individual drones are, the Tripredicus Council has used enough of them overwhelm any that would oppose them."

"They ain't gonna be ambushing anyone for awhile," Rattrap told him, "we took out their factories, and they've likely sent much of their army elsewhere trying take other places."

"Better to be safe then sorry," Runner retorted beginning to run again, making Rattrap rush to keep up with him.

"I ain't opposed to that, but we're kinda on time table here," Rattrap answered, "stopping and starting is only gonna get us caught as well."

Runner was about to answer when Optimus's voice was heard above them. Both Runner and Rattrap stopped to look up as Optimus and Queen came in for a landing in front of them.

"How'd it go?" Optimus asked.

"We got the factory, and we're on our way to where Dinobot and the others are," Rattrap told him.

"So far, so good then," Optimus nodded.

"Hopefully, Dinobot has decided to wait for us," Queen grumbled, "I want to be there when I be there when the Tripredicus Council is taken down."

"Are there any drones ahead of us?" Runner asked.

"None that we saw," Optimus commented, "and if there are any, most of them are likely trying to rush to their base to try and anticipate our 'attack' on their base."

"Which will destroy them once and for all!" Queen added.

"Well, that's peachy," Rattrap commented, "I don't suppose we could get a ride, could we?"

"I don't see a problem with that," Optimus commented as he lifted Rattrap up in his massive hands.

Queen merely, returned to her beast mode and gripped Runner with her legs.

"Let us hurry," Queen said urgently.

Optimus and Queen took to the air again, each carrying their respective members and heading toward the rendezvous point. They flew only a block before an explosion was heard in the distance.

"Dinobot didn't wait, I guess," Rattrap commented.

"Hopefully he had a good reason," Optimus sighed and accelerated.

**Outside the Tripredicus Council Headquarters**

Airazor easily flew through several formations of drones, destroying them as she went. Flanking her were Terrorsaur and Waspinator, who also had no trouble in destroying several jet drones. But, there were more drones coming, and the drones on the ground actually stopped and began firing up at them.

"If is the best they have, then we can crush them all," Terrorsaur spoke confidently as he dodged ground fire and destroyed two more drones that were trying to turn around.

"These drones are intended to draw us out," Airazor warned the pterosaur transformer, "when they're confident that they've drawn everyone out, they'll back these guys up."

"Then Waspinator thinks we should destroy them now," Waspinator buzzed from beside her and destroyed two more jet drones with his stinger darts.

"We need to draw them toward the others," Airazor corrected as she watched a shot from the ground hit Waspinator, knocking the transmetal two wasp away from their location, "then all the drones will be destroyed."

"Killjoy," Terrorsaur grumbled as he slammed two jet drones together with his bare hands.

Several more jet drones flew out and began firing, using their laser fire as a blaster fire like a plow to force the Maximal and two Predicon transformers away. Airazor fired a few darts and then dove down and toward the waiting force of transformers. Terrorsaur and Waspinator quickly followed. The drones followed behind, firing as they went. Unfortunately for several jet drones, the fire from many of the tank drones on the ground was so poorly aimed that the tank drones actually destroyed several jet drones as well.

Dinobot and Rapther, meanwhile kept a close eye on the developing battle. The drones were yet to do anything to impress the transmetal two raptor, and he was confident that even the three transformers being fired on could destroy every drone in the force that was advancing. The drones fired wildly, with several of their shots doing damage to the buildings along the street that they were advancing.

"How these things conquered the planet I'll never know," Rapther commented showing her own disappointment at the quality of the opponent.

"They had more transformers helping them when they took over Cybertron," Bomb reminded the transmetal female raptor, "before we realized just how wrong the Tripredicus Council was."

The two raptors only snarled their disapproval.

"The drones may actually help us a bit with their wild firing," Blackarachnia called from he other alley, "the rubble from the buildings will provide us with a barricade in the middle of the street."

"So long as they don't damage the buildings to the point where they collapse," Dinobot replied as Airazor, Waspinator, and Terrorsaur flew overhead.

"They're on their way, and about as effective as ever!" Airazor called down as she returned the fire of several drones.

Dinobot nodded and turned back to the advancing drones. They were still moving forward, and several of the jet drones had actually flown over their positions to continue fighting the three flyers sent against them. The male raptor only waited a short time before he felt it was time to spring the trap.

"Maximals and Predicons, ATTACK!" Dinobot screamed to commence the attack.

Dinobot then led the charge out as the drones tried to maneuver through the barricade of rumble they had created by their earlier wild shots.

**Tripredicus Council Headquarters**

The three council members watching the battle frowned heavily as the Resistance finally made its move in attacking the drones. The result of the fire from the attacking Resistance members created a massive explosion that destroyed almost half of the drones in one shot. The rest began firing on the Resistance fighters, but had a difficult path between rubble from damaged buildings, and fragments from destroyed drones.

"And the drone's success rate continues," Cicadacon commented, "at least they're providing a distraction."

"How much longer until our ships arrive?" Seaclamp asked nervously.

"About half a megacycle," Ramhorn replied, "besides, by your own plan, it is not yet time to call the ships in anyway. Now, we are to send in our transformers to support the drones."

Seaclamp nodded, "I know, it is just that I do not think that Starscream can destroy enough of them for even their numbers to be effective."

"Vile and Crane could always get lucky," Cicadacon commented, "besides, even they are still cannon fodder. The Resistance will be weakened battling them, and will not be able to beat the ships when they arrive. And we can finish off any of the survivors."

Seaclamp nodded again. He hoped that his plan would work, because if it didn't, he didn't want to dwell on what would happen then.

"I am more concerned why Primal and few other members of his band are not present," Ramhorn spoke up, "I had thought that he would lead the charge."

"Primal, more then likely, is with teams that just destroyed our drone factories," Seaclamp told him, "if not, maybe he's guarding their base… and either way, it will make it easier for us if Primal is not here."

"We should still be careful though," Cicadacon warned, "If Primal is with the teams that struck our factories, he is likely on his way here to join with the rest of his forces."

Both Ramhorn and Seaclamp nodded in agreement.

"In the meantime, it is time to send in our transformers," Ramhorn answered, and activated an intercom, "Attention soldiers of the Tripredicus Council, it is now time. Attack the Resistance fighters! Attack and destroy!"

Starscream and Curser were the first to charge out of the Tripredicus Council headquarters and flew directly toward the obvious battle unfolding in front of them. The battle had destroyed most of the jet drones, which were still desperately trying to fight the Resistance's flyers. Starscream quickly noted the pterosaur transformer and a wasp transformer fighting against the drones.

"You can fight whoever you want, but Terrorsaur and Waspinator are mine," Starscream growled to the other Tripredicus Council soldier.

"Of course," Curser answered and followed the F-15 transformer toward the battle.

Silverbolt grimaced slightly as a couple of shots fired by a drone glanced off of a wing. The drones were numerous, but as all their past encounters with them had shown, their weapons were not as powerful as a transformer's and they need their numbers to be of any use. Silverbolt quickly made work of the attacking jet drone with one of his extended feathers, which he was using like a sword.

"What will we do when we've finished with these drones?" Silverbolt wondered out loud, "the Tripredicus Council will surely know that we're here now."

"I do not know," Tigerhawk grumbled as he, still in beast mode, sliced a jet drone in half with his talons, "the Resistance leader wants to be here for the fight and the glory, and Optimus wouldn't let us take the risk alone. Everything will depend on when they arrive and… and probably on what Dinobot decides to do."

The two fuzors were interrupted by a new arrival.

"Don't worry!" Curser spoke as he fired several laser blasts at them, "you won't live long enough to figure out 'what' to do next."

Curser's shots hit Silverbolt in the back and sent him tumbling away while Tigerhawk managed use his transmetal two wings to shield himself. Curser, however, avoided Tigerhawk's attempt to bat him away, and opened the transmetal fuzor up for a series of shots fired on him by a pair of attacking drone. Tigerhawk quickly dispatched the two drones, but that left him open to Curser's fire, which sent him crashing into the roof a nearby building.

"It would appear that an easy victory has been stopped," Silverbolt commented as he fired a few feather missiles at Curser to let Tigerhawk get back to his feet.

"Nothing in this business ever is," Tigerhawk grumbled as he opened on Curser with his gatling guns.

Curser dodged Silverbolt's fire, but the move took him into Tigerhawk's. This threw the Tripredicus supporter back and enabled the two Maximal fuzors to charge forward.

Silverbolt was not about to let the Tripredicus soldier recover and reached Curser first, and tackled him while the two continued to fly. Curser fought back, and the two began a long wrestling match in the air, until they crashed into the roof of a building across the street. While Curser was driven straight into the metal roof, he did manage to throw Silverbolt off of him, and the wolf-eagle fuzor ended up rolling toward the edge of the building.

Tigerhawk, following after Silverbolt, finished the fight by landing directly on Curser. His greater size and weight put the smaller jet transformer into stasis lock for the time being.

"Silverbolt? Are you alright?" Tigerhawk questioned.

"Physically?" Silverbolt asked back slowly, "Fine… although I don't think I'll be flying anywhere soon."

"You should get back to base then," Tigerhawk urged, "No need for you to risk being destroyed."

"I'm fine, sir," Silverbolt answered, "I will simply need help getting back to the ground."

"You're sure?" Tigerhawk asked.

"Yes," Silverbolt nodded.

"Very well," Tigerhawk sighed.

Starscream, meanwhile zoomed forward at high speed, intent on engaging Terrorsaur and Waspinator. He could remember taking possession of Waspinator and the fact that Terrorsaur was suspicious of him, and so, getting vengeance against them would be sweet… and then destroying Blackarachnia and Optimus Primal would be even sweeter, but that would have to wait for the moment.

Both Terrorsaur and Waspinator were chasing after drones, which they were destroying with ease. This allowed Starscream to get the drop on them. Staying in his vehicle mode, Starscream acquired a radar lock on the other two transformers and fired two missiles from his wings. The resulting explosion threw the both Waspinator and Terrorsaur back several feet, and Starscream ended up flying between them.

"Hello chumps, remember me?" Starscream taunted.

Terrorsaur and Waspinator both watched as the F-15 transformer circled around to fire again on them.

"Waspinator remembers Scream-bot," Waspinator growled and fired several stinger-darts at Starscream.

Starscream took his robot mode and dodged most of Waspinator's shots, and those that did hit him, were only glancing hits.

"Waspinator hasn't gotten any smarter, I see," Starscream chuckled as he flew forward and punched the wasp transformer in the face.

"No dumber then you," Terrorsaur told him as he fired his lasers into Starscream's back.

The shot made Starscream tumble down a bit while Waspinator and Terrorsaur gathered above him. The two were fairly formidable while together. He was working on a plan to separate them when he was hit in the back again by another set of darts. He then turned to see Airazor arriving on the scene.

"The flying drones have all been destroyed," Airazor reported as she came closer.

"So you came to be destroyed by me!" Starscream cut Waspinator and Terrorsaur off before they could answer, and blasted away with laser fire at point blank range into Airazor's stomach.

The blast threw Airazor through the wall of a nearby building, where the falcon transformer fell into stasis lock. Starscream then followed, hoping to destroy he femmebot and draw the other two flyers into a battle where their numbers wouldn't help. Waspinator and Terrorsaur were both quick to follow. They caught Starscream preparing to finish of Airazor and managed to blast him away in the nick of time.

"Bird-bot is sleeping," Waspinator buzzed.

"Pity," Terrorsaur replied, "get her back to the base. I'm sure our Maximal allies would want to see her recover."

Waspinator nodded and flew out of the building with Airazor. Terrorsaur, meanwhile, didn't get much of a shot at getting ready, as Starscream had recovered and blasted him with missiles at rather close range. The attack threw Terrorsaur out through a different wall and into the alley, where Terrorsaur bounced of the exterior walls of the buildings making up the alley before landing hard on the ground.

"I'm growing tired of you," Starscream growled as he landed on Terrorsaur's chest and pressed down with one foot.

Terrorsaur was in too much pain to really fight back at the moment, but watched as Starscream's hopes were quickly dashed. Several large blasts hit Starscream in the back and threw him into the ground, where he finally fell into stasis lock. Terrorsaur then looked up to see Depthcharge and Wired arriving, weapons drawn.

"I thought you were supposed to wait until we arrived before you begun the battle," Depthcharge questioned.

"You didn't tell the Tripredicus Council that," Terrorsaur answered as he got up, "they attacked us."

The ground battle was going very well for the resistance fighters. The drones had attacked in mass numbers, but their moderate weaponry, weak armor, and poor intelligence kept them bottled up and easy targets for the transformers fighting them. It was only their numbers that kept the battle going so far. As Vile arrived on the scene, he found even the most basically armored resistance fighters destroying drones at will.

"Oh, this will not do," Vile grumbled and prepared his mace, intending to take out several of the resistance fighters, particularly while there were still drones present.

Squeak and Mammoth had just finished off a pair drones when a large wrecking ball hit them from behind and sent both of them flying. Neither was hurt badly, but it was clear that Squeak was somewhat disoriented.

"Foolish little resistance fighters, thinking they could make a difference," Vile taunted as he attacked again with his mace.

Mammoth dodged the attack, barely, but Squeak was not so lucky. When Mammoth looked back, he noticed that Squeak had been knocked out by the crane transformer's mace.

"You'll pay for that," Mammoth growled as grabbed a nearby tank drone and threw it at Vile.

Vile managed to duck under the throw, but it didn't save him from taking a laser blast to the chest, throwing him back several feet. Mammoth, meanwhile, charged toward him to make sure that the crane transformer couldn't escape. Vile managed to catch the attacking Maximal with his mace before Mammoth could launch another attack, but Vile still knew that he wouldn't last long against the rest of the resistance if he couldn't pull of a more successful fight. He quickly drew a blaster and blasted Mammoth into stasis lock, but the shot to kill the resistance fighter was taken away from him when a cyber-web caught and pulled away that blaster.

Vile turned, only to kicked in the face by Blackarachnia as the transmetal two black widow leaped at him.

"Now, that wasn't very nice," Blackarachnia taunted the Tripredicus Council soldier.

Blackarachnia then opened fire with the machine guns in her beast mode's legs, knocking Vile back and doing some damage to his armor. As Vile tumbled back, he swung his mace towards Blackarachnia, but the attack was unguided. The transmetal two spider easily ducked under the wrecking ball part of the mace and sliced through the chain with the claws mounted on her right wrist. The wrecking ball flew off into a nearby building while the chain swung back and hit Vile in the head.

"And you haven't gotten any smarter, I see," Blackarachnia smiled.

Vile only growled angrily and rushed forward, intending to pummel the spider femmebot with his bare hands. Blackarachnia responded by delivering a spinning kick to Vile's neck, knocking him down. She then took her beast mode and delivered a massive dose of cybervenom into Vile, paralyzing him. She then looked around to see that most of the drones were now destroyed and that Depthcharge's team had arrived at the battle zone. The others couldn't be far behind.

Meanwhile, Cybershark and Grease arrived from behind the makeshift barricade to look at the carnage in front of them. They slowly approached Dinobot and Rapther who were standing near a tank drone that looked like it had been through a shredder.

"You were supposed to wait until Queen got here," Grease growled as he approached the Maximal raptors, showing little if any fear.

"That was the plan," Dinobot grumbled, "but plans rarely last long."

"So you just attacked?" Grease questioned.

"This is the rallying point," Rapther growled at the hyena transformer, "If we attacked, would we still be at the rallying point?"

Grease didn't know how to answer that. The drones had proved to be very ineffective against Primal's warriors, and it was drones that numbered among most of the casualties present.

"The Tripredicus Council knows we're here," Dinobot grumbled, "This was their first attempt to drive us off. Now, we are only waiting for their next move."

"And what do you think that would be?" Bomb asked as he came around a destroyed drone, and then added icily, "commander?"

"Either they'll flee or send more drones," Dinobot grumbled, "we have captured all their transformers and destroyed this wave of drones. Unless they have more transformers that we haven't run into yet, I would think that the fighting out here is finished."

**Tripredicus Council Headquarters**

"Are our ships ready?" Seaclamp questioned, "our transformers hardly did any damage to them and the drones did even less."

"They are ready and waiting," Ramhorn nodded, "If the order is given."

"It is," Seaclamp and Cicadacon answered in unison, "send them in."

"At once," Ramhorn smiled.

**Elsewhere**

Optimus and Queen continued to rush toward the rallying point, which seemed to be the same spot where they heard the sounds of battle originally coming from. They did have to be careful, as they were still carrying Runner and Rattrap, but that wasn't the first thing on their minds.

"It's certainly gotten quiet all of a sudden," Runner spoke in Queen's grasp.

"He better have captured the Tripredicus Council," Queen growled, "that's the only thing that will let him escape punishment."

"I doubt Dinobot attacked," Optimus answered, "He may not have liked waiting, but he would follow the order. More then likely, the Tripredicus Council attacked him."

"And I don't think it's over yet!" Rattrap spoke up nervously from his place on Optimus's back, pointing toward something in the air ahead of them.

Optimus turned his attention to the direction that Rattrap was pointing, and immediately felt nervous by what he saw. Descending through the industrial smoke and heading directly for the rallying point were three warships of the same class that the Darkside had been built from.

"Well, that's just prime," Optimus growled in a frustrated tone.

**To Be Continued…**


	3. Chapter 3

Beast Wars and all characters and things related are copyright and trademark of Hasbro and Mainframe Entertainment. This work, however, is the original work of the author.

Note: This story takes place immediately after "Journeys".

Saving Cybertron, Chapter 3

By TVfan

**Battle Site**

The site of the fighting outside the Tripredicus Council headquarters was temporarily as their drones and transformers that had challenged the force that Dinobot had lead there had been destroyed or at least defeated. The transmetal two raptor hoped the lull would last until Optimus returned and whatever plan for the assault on the Tripredicus headquarters could be planned better. The sound of a starship's engines and a warning shout, broke that hope though.

"Dinobot!" Tigerhawk shouted from a nearby roof, "Incoming!"

Dinobot looked up to see three shapes moving down toward them from clouds. They were dark due to the fading light around their point on Cybertron, but he could easily recognize the shape of the warship class that the Darkside belonged to. And the three ships were headed their way.

"Take cover!" Dinobot ordered as loud as he could as all three of the ships began firing on their positions as they got closer.

Laser fire landed indiscriminately among the tall buildings and the ground around the resistance fighters. For the moment, no one had taken a direct hit, but the ships did manage to force all of the buildings in the area to collapse into the street they were in. This included he one that Tigerhawk had reported their attack from. The resulting avalanche of metal, glass, and other building materials actually did more to disorient them then the direct laser shots did, as several transformers were buried by the rubble.

Wolffang had managed to avoid being buried and nervously looked around. Piles of rubble covered the street, and had buried many of the transformers that were there, and he could hear the sound of grunting and growling as several of them struggled against he metal and glass piled on top of them. Wolffang was quick to move to Tigerhawk, who was pulling himself out of one pile of rubble.

"Are you alright?" Wolffang asked as he approached.

"As well as I can be," Tigerhawk grunted as he stood up, feeling some pain in his wings.

"How do we stop those things?" Wolffang questioned as he gestured to the three starships which were moving to circle around for another pass at them.

Tigerhawk sighed. Attacking ships was a job left to other starships. He could remember the Beast Wars well. The Darkside, the Nemesis, he Axalon, the Ark were all used as bases and all of them were difficult to take. Their weapons were more powerful then anything an individual transformer was equipped with, and if their shields still functioned, they could take a lot of punishment before the shields would be knocked out. And even with their numbers, they didn't have the numbers to bring down three of those ships.

"I do not know," Tigerhawk grumbled, "but for the moment, fighting those ships is not our main priority."

Tigerhawk then turned to the piles of rubble that several of the other transformers who weren't buried were taking cover behind.

"We must get those who have been buried out from underneath all this rubble," Tigerhawk said urgently, "without them, we may not stand a chance of taking out those ships."

Wolffang slowly nodded and turned to his beast mode, knowing that he could more easily smell out the others in it.

**Tripredicus Council Headquarters**

"Yes!" General Seaclamp exclaimed, "now that is how things should go!"

The three Tripredicus Council leaders were still watching from a central monitoring room within their tower as the three warships launched their attack on the resistance fighters in front of them. The ships had destroyed several buildings and had buried most of the resistance fighters in the rubble. This gave many in the Tripredicus Council some confidence that the conflict was approaching a suitable end.

"It isn't over yet, General Seaclamp," General Ramhorn warned.

"Not over," General Cicadacon spoke up, "but I'd think we can mark this as a victory now. Most of them were buried in rubble when the buildings collapsed. And our ships are circling back for another pass, and with an open target, they can hover over the battle and insure that they stay in the killing zone while we gather more drones from elsewhere."

Ramhorn nodded at the plan. Cicadacon was right the battle was going well and that if they handled the situation well, they would win. But few things ever go entirely according to plan, and even with the success they had had, they couldn't be sure that those that were buried were in stasis lock.

"It's doubtful that all of them are in stasis lock," Ramhorn told the other two, "the falling rubble will disorient them, but I doubt that all of them are in stasis lock."

"Even still, I think we should have a good shot at winning," Seaclamp said confidently, "our ships will be back over the position before all of the ones that have been buried have been dug out."

Ramhorn looked out again to see that all three ships had finished turning and were now preparing to return to the battle site. The resistance wouldn't fully dig themselves out in time, and that gave him some confidence, but there was one thing that remained in his mind. From what he could see, not all of the resistance fighters were there before the ships attacked.

"Even still," Ramhorn warned, "Primal is not there. If he arrives while we are distracted, he could cause problems. He's done so before…"

"That was mostly against Megatron, which we learned of through Tarantulus," Cicadacon reminded him, "we'll do better against that ape then what Megatron did… and if he does intervene, we'll deal with him directly, and we'll beat him."

"Right," Seaclamp agreed.

Ramhorn only sighed at the bravado of his compatriots. It might help in certain situations, but if a clear mind wasn't controlling it, bravado would only bring about their own destruction.

**Elsewhere**

Optimus was absolutely horrified by what he saw. Three warships, identical in design to Megatron's Darkside, descended on the position where the others were waiting and had fired on them, at close to point blank range. He had no increased his speed in the hopes of getting to the battle site in time, and that left Queen struggling to keep up.

"Can your upgraded forms do damage to those ships?" Queen inquired, referring to the transmetal and transmetal two armor that several of the Maximals from the Beast Wars were equipped with.

"Any of us can do damage to them," Optimus answered, "the question you should be asking is 'do we have the time to wear down their shields'."

"And I'd say that'd be a long shot," Rattrap grumbled from his position, "we got some help in attacking the Darkside, and some difficulties in defending the Axalon because both ships had crashed and sustained serious damage in the crash."

"And the Axalon crashed twice," Optimus sighed with a slight chuckle, as though he was trying to escape an already tough situation.

"It's a miracle any of you survived your Beast Wars," Queen grumbled, "Maximal or Predicon. It's a miracle you survived."

Queen then looked up toward the battle site as the three warships made their way back toward where the rest of the resistance fighters were likely recovering from the first attack.

"So do you have any plan on how to deal with those things?" Queen inquired.

"The shields will stop anything until they wear out…" Optimus answered, "but maybe… if I slow down enough… I think I might be able to push one of them and knock it off course. That might help a bit and would buy you and the others time."

"Just make sure I'm on the ground before you go on these glory charges," Rattrap spoke to him, "I don't wanna be killed while flying through the air!"

**The Battle Site**

Dinobot and Rapther erupted out of one pile of rubble to find that the situation there was not good. Tigerhawk, Wolffang, and a few others were trying to dig as many resistance fighters out from under the rubble of the first attack by the starships, and a few, like Depthcharge had managed to pull themselves out on their own. But all of them had sustained some damage from the falling rubble, and there were likely to be a few who were now in stasis lock at best, if not destroyed outright. The transmetal two raptor slowly approached the transmetal two fuzor who was leading the efforts to dig out the others.

"Can you get a head count on who is still online?" Dinobot questioned as he got closer.

"We're mostly trying to get everyone out," Tigerhawk answered, "I don't think we'll have time to take a real count of who has been wounded. Those ships are already on their way back."

Dinobot looked up again to see all three ships heading directly toward their position, all weapons ready to fire again.

"We might be able to use the rubble as cover," Rapther spoke up, "use it to block the worst of their shots."

"That won't work when they're directly over us," Dinobot grumbled, "We had cover assaulting the Darkside because that ship had crashed and couldn't over any attacking target. And the Darkside's most powerful guns were destroyed in the crash. The only cover we can get would be to go back underground…"

"Which would surrender the field and any of the Maximals in stasis lock to them," Rapther finished, "Slag."

"Not to mention that Primal is on his way here with Queen," Bomb commented as he came closer, "You'd be abandoning your leader and ours to fury of those ships."

Dinobot gave a growling sigh as Depthcharge slowly made his way over.

"So how do you plan to get us out of this, before they start shooting again?" Depthcharge asked again.

Dinobot looked up toward the advancing ships.

"Can you distract them?" Dinobot questioned.

"Distract them?" Depthcharge questioned, glancing to Tigerhawk.

"Yes," Dinobot nodded, "fly between them and fire on the ships. When they turn their guns to fire on you, they will gun each other down on their own."

"They could be blown to bits!" Wolffang protested.

"Do you have a better idea?" Dinobot growled back, "For the moment we are still out of range to warn our leaders of the situation and take the most… appropriate course of action… which means we have to stay here. I for one, do not wish to sit as a target for them. I will do whatever I can to fight!"

"Just try to make sure the others are alright," Tigerhawk said simply and took to the air, hoping the transmetal two raptor's plan wasn't a foolhardy one.

Depthcharge followed quietly behind him. Dinobot, meanwhile turned to the others.

"In the meantime we must evacuate all stasis locked transformers to the tunnels and back to base," Dinobot instructed, "Which will mean moving as much of the rubble as possible. Lay it as road blocks so that if any more drones come, we will have a ready defensive barrier by then… hopefully, Tigerhawk and Depthcharge, and any other undamaged flier we can find can keep those ships occupied until Optimus arrives."

The others nodded and the work resumed in trying to clear the rubble that had fallen.

Meanwhile, the Tripredicus Council continued to watch the battle as it unfolded.

"What are they doing?" Seaclamp wondered aloud as they saw two transformers begin to fly toward the approaching warships.

"It would appear that they are attacking the ships," Ramhorn replied.

"That's perfect!" Cicadacon smiled confidently, "the ships will destroy them and leave them without any available flyers!"

"If they fly slowly and in front of the main guns," Ramhorn countered, "and our ships are rather close together. They might be trying to get our ships to shoot at each other."

"I'll rely an order to the ships, telling them to take a more open formation," Seaclamp spoke, "It'll give the ships a better shot at them without risking having them shoot themselves down."

Ramhorn nodded and continued to watch the battle as it unfolded.

Tigerhawk and Depthcharge flew toward the approaching ships as quickly as they could with their weapons ready. So far the ships had their weapons aimed downward to fire on ground targets, and that gave the transmetal two fuzor some hope that the plan would work. Once they got close enough, Tigerhawk opened fire with his Gatling guns on the ship on right of the formation while Depthcharge fired on the ship on left of the formation.

The attack had the response that they were hoping for. As they flew through the formation, the ship's guns turned to follow them and fired a few hesitant shots. Both dodged the shots, and they hit the center ship, and the center ship's shots hit the other two. Both transformers regrouped behind the formation of ships.

"Well, that's a start," Depthcharge grumbled, "The real question is will they keep that formation?"  
"We have to hope so," Tigerhawk answered and readied the two mega-missiles mounted under his wings and fired them at the ships on the edges of the formation, "because they aren't turning to follow us."

The missiles did little damage, but did make their shields shimmer for a moment.

"Time for the next round," Depthcharge commented as he moved forward again.

The two then charged forward again, going between the central ship and the two flanking ships. Again they flew too fast for the ships to target them accurately, and they mostly shot each other as they went by. But, Tigerhawk did notice something once they arrived in front of the approaching ships.

"They're moving apart!" Tigerhawk spoke with some alarm in his voice.

Depthcharge turned and looked back to see the two flanking ships beginning to move into a wider formation, one that would allow them to target the two transformers more easily. Their maneuvers could still work, but not as well, and the smaller guns on those ships would be able to hit them with ease.

"Slag," Depthcharge cursed, "try and see if you can hit the individual guns. If they're going to spread out for ease of targeting, maybe we can take out their weapons so that they can't shoot!"

**Elsewhere**

Queen watched in puzzlement as she saw shield flashes on the three Tripredicus Council ships as they began to return to the battle site from the other direction. They were also getting close enough that she could make out two forms flying around the ships.

"They're attacking the ships?!" Queen gasped.

"Dinobot's never been one to back down from a fight," Optimus commented.

"Bearings of chrome steal!" Rattrap nodded as he added his assessment of Dinobot's personality, "We're all gonna die."

"Yes, Dinobot is brave, but I would think that he is smart enough to move away from three heavily armed warships when he can not openly match them," Queen answered, "a smart warrior doesn't engage in a battle he knows he doesn't have a chance of winning."

"He might if he knows he can't avoid it," Optimus answered, thinking back to the Beast Wars, "or if the cause is to important to pull away…"

"And saving Cybertron from facing a resurrected Unicron sounds like a pretty important one," Rattrap added, "Perfect cause for ol' Chopperface to fight for."

Queen grumbled something that Optimus couldn't hear.

"Regardless, we'd best get there," Optimus sighed, "the fight has already begun."

Queen only sighed and continued to follow Optimus toward the battle site.

**Battle Site**

"My aching head," Terrorsaur grumbled as Snowstalker and Wolffang dug him out of the rubble that he had been buried under.

The transmetal two Predicon slowly staggered out of the rubble to look around the scene and check himself for damage. His armor was scratched up and dented in a few places, but nothing looked seriously damaged. Which seemed to be better then several others being taken into an alley and to the underground tunnels beneath the streets. He also noticed the three ships hovering over them.

"Those are warships!" Terrorsaur exclaimed.

"Yes," Snowstalker answered, "they launched the attack that collapsed all these buildings. Tigerhawk and Depthcharge are trying to distract them while we try dig out those that were buried and ready some defenses should they send more drones while those ships."

"They do seem distracted," Terrorsaur commented as he looked up again, watching as the ships were firing predominantly at the transmetal manta ray and the transmetal two fuzor.

"Dinobot hopes the warships end up shooting each other down," Wolffang commented.

"I assume that means he wants all flyers to attack them?" Terrorsaur grumbled.

Wolffang nodded. Terrorsaur grumbled something again, but took off and headed for the central warship. The three warships had spread out over a wide area to make it easier for their guns to target Depthcharge and Tigerhawk. And Terrorsaur could see that both of them had taken some damage, but even with the wider formation, the ships did still occasionally miss their intended targets and hit one another. Depthcharge and Tigerhawk also fired on the ships with their own weapons.

As Terrorsaur got closer, he assumed that the central ship was running low on shield power. He added his own optics lasers to the shots the ship was taking from the two flanking ships and occasionally from Tigerhawk or Depthcharge. After the second shot, he got what he anticipated, the ship lost its shields. He ended up running into the two Maximals as he flew around the ship.

"Target the pods where the wings join with the ship," Terrorsaur screeched, "that's where the engines are… with its shields down, eve our weapons will do serious damage to them."

"If we aren't destroyed by the other two first," Depthcharge grumbled as he dodged one shot fired at them.

"Just do it!" Terrorsaur screeched.

All three of them fired several rounds into the central ship's engine pods, and as Terrorsaur predicted, the ship began to lose power. Trying to avoid being shot down, it began to drive away, but a few hits from Depthcharge's shark blaster sent the ship drifting downward toward the buildings that they hadn't damaged earlier.

"Triumph!" Terrorsaur smiled as he heard some cheers from the ground below them.

The triumph was short lived as all three of them were hit by shots from the two flanking ships that sent all three of them dropping to the ground.

Inside the Tripredicus Council Headquarters the three generals were all shocked by what they had witnessed. Using the ships against each other, they had successfully brought one down. Something that even Ramhorn didn't anticipate.

"Impossible!" Cicadacon gasped as the central ship dropped out o the sky toward the ground between them and the resistance fighters that they were trying to destroy, "they can not bring down our ships!""

"They didn't," Ramhorn answered, "our own ships bought them down. They merely executed a stratagem that worked against our ships. Now, the drones from the downed ship will have to win the battle on the ground."

"The downing of the central ship will give us some help in that the remaining two will have a wider area to shoot through," Seaclamp commented, "the resistance won't be able to use those tactics again."

Just as Seaclamp finished, they witnessed the two flanking ships hit all three of the resistance fighters, sending them crashing toward the ground.

"As just shown," Seaclamp finished.

**One Block Away**

"NO!" Optimus shouted as he saw Tigerhawk, Depthcharge, and Terrorsaur crash to the ground.

He had been pleasantly surprised to see them take out one of the three ships, which was something that even he didn't think could have been managed, even by himself. But the shots fired by the two flanking ships renewed his worry. For, while Terrorsaur was a Predicon, who had recently sworn loyalty to Queen, Optimus couldn't let anyone, regardless of their faction, get hurt while they fought on the same side.

He had to do something before the two remaining ships destroyed the others. To do this, he quickly landed to let Rattrap get off.

"Why are you stopping?!" Queen demanded as she buzzed down, still holding Runner in her beast mode legs.

"To put Rattrap down," Optimus answered, "I'm going to do what I can to try and stop those ships. Get to Dinobot. Coordinate whatever attack you can against the Tripredicus Council with him."

"But those ships will destroy you as well!" Runner exclaimed.

"Better me then letting those ships destroy everyone else and giving the Tripredicus Council the time to resurrect Unicron," Optimus answered, "We have to do what we can to solve the situation… we have to."

Once Rattrap was off, Optimus returned to his vehicle, jet, mode and flew off at high speed toward the closest warship. Determined to knock it away from the battle zone, even if he had to push it himself.

"You go on ahead," Rattrap said to Queen, "I'll get there when I can."

Queen only nodded and buzzed off, still carrying Runner as she went. She gave one small glance to Optimus's position, and as the Maximal leader rocketed toward the closest ship, part of her programming worried, for some reason.

Optimus, meanwhile rushed onward. If Tigerhawk, Depthcharge, and Terrorsaur were in stasis lock, they would leave the others as sitting targets for the remaining two ships. He had to get there.

**Battle Site**

They all hit the ground relatively hard. Defeating the central ship had left them exposed to the two flanking ships which fired on them as soon as the central ship was out of the way. Terrorsaur was the first to get up, and quickly saw that Depthcharge was now in stasis lock, and Tigerhawk looked like he couldn't take much more. The two ships above them were also turning their guns to fire down on them.

"We've got to get back up there," Terrorsaur spoke slowly, "make sure they can't fire down on us…"

"But Depthcharge…" Tigerhawk began to protest.

"Will be scrap if we stay down here," Terrorsaur answered, "especially since Dinobot isn't likely to order a retreat. We have to attack those ships."

"We'd best focus on one ship then," Tigerhawk sighed, "I'm in no condition to divide my attention. Maybe we might be able to take out the shields on it."

Terrorsaur and took off toward the southern most ship. Either ship was a valid target, but the southern most ship just happened to be the one that they targeted. Terrorsaur opened up first with his optics lasers while Tigerhawk followed up with his Gatling guns. Once again, their weapons did little real damage to the shields, but were successful in distracting both ships from firing down toward the transformers on the ground.

"Here's hoping they miss when they shoot at us," Terrorsaur grumbled as he fired again.

The shots had little impact on the ship's shields, as it had not taken as heavy fire from its own side as the central ship had. But, the shots did have the affect that Terrorsaur hoped for. Both ships began to move their guns to target them rather then fire down on the transformers there. The guns on the southern most ship couldn't track them because they flew to quickly and too close, but the northern ship did manage to fire a few weak shots, which thankfully missed.

"We're not going to get a shot being between the two ships," Tigerhawk spoke, "We'd best go around and take out the guns on the other side."

Terrorsaur nodded and the two began to circle around to directly strike at the guns on the other side of the ship.

On the ground, Dinobot watched the situation nervously. The initial attack had sent many of the transformers there into stasis lock, and they had been fortunate to have no fatalities yet, but that sort of luck couldn't hold out. The central warship had not been destroyed. Any drone or transformer crew that manned it would surely move overland to attack their position on their own, and the commanders of the two remaining warships could change their tactics and let Terrorsaur and Tigerhawk buzz them, doing negligible damage.

"Any sign of a ground attack?" Dinobot questioned to Rapther, who he had placed as a lookout.

"Negative," Rapther answered, "If whoever was in the downed ship intends to launch an attack, they're taking their sweet time to coordinate it. Nothing has come out of the Council Headquarters either."

"That'll give us some time to deal with our present issues," Dinobot sighed and turned to look back to the efforts to recover the transformers that were buried in the initial attack by the ships.

As he tuned back, he found Snowstalker looking up.

"Look!" Snowstalker spoke up pointing up to the sky.

Dinobot glanced up to see Optimus's vehicle mode slam into the shields of the northern most warship. The ship's shields, already tested by impacts from their weapons and shots earlier fired from the central ship lost out as Optimus put pressure on them and began to push the ship sideways through the air.

"By the pit," Dinobot spoke in surprise.

His own rockets were at their limit as he pushed against the large warship. Transforming to robot mode gave him some more control, but Optimus found that even with that, it wouldn't be too long before he simply ran out of the fuel stores to fly. He had to deal with the ships quickly. His intention was to push the northern most warship into its southern partner. It was the only way he could conserve what little fuel he had for his rockets.

Meanwhile on the other side of the other ship, the sound of Optimus hitting the other ship attracted both Terrorsaur and Tigerhawk's attention.

"What was that?" Terrorsaur wondered aloud.

"That sounded like something hitting the other ship," Tigerhawk commented as he fired his weapons at an exposed gun on the warship they were attacking.

"None of the others have a weapon that could make that sort of sound," Terrorsaur commented, "Not even Optimus has a weapon that could make that sound."

"Optimus…" Tigerhawk mused for a moment, "Perhaps he has arrived…"

"And what would he be doing?" Terrorsaur questioned, "Pushing the ship?"

"That could be just it," Tigerhawk nodded and ducked to fly under the ship they were attacking.

Terrorsaur only grumbled and followed. As they began to traverse the space between the two ships, both transformers came under fire again. Terrorsaur managed to dodge the shots aimed at him, but Tigerhawk, already damaged from the earlier shots fired at him, was hit again and tumbled out of the sky, though thankfully at a slow enough speed and a shallow enough angle that hitting the ground wouldn't cause him too much damage. Terrorsaur continued on to find that it was in fact Optimus Primal pushing the other warship.

"Need any help?" Terrorsaur offered.

"Push the wing up!" Optimus spoke, "We must get it to lose control… it might be the only way to move it."

Terrorsaur sighed and moved to the underside of the wing on the other side of Optimus and began to push up on the warship. It struck him as a rather desperate plan, but attacking it outright wasn't much better in his opinion either. To his astonishment, the massive ship began to tilt upwards slightly, as if he was actually able to push the massive ship.

**Tripredicus Council Headquarters**

The three generals stood in absolute shock at what was happening. Primal had not only arrived on the scene but was physically attempting to push one of their warships out of the fight. What shocked them more was that he appeared to be succeeding. The ship was rotating up and being pushed toward the other ship.

"I can't believe it," Seaclamp gasped, "I can't believe it."

"It is the unexpected," Ramhorn commented, "which is what always turns battles."

Cicadacon and Seaclamp glanced at Ramhorn, who had sounded the least confident when the ships initially attacked, who now sounded the most shocked by what had happened. They then glanced back out to see the ship that was literally being pushed attempt to try and pull away from Primal's attack. This only made the situation worse as it aided Primal's efforts and resulted in absolute chaos. The ship ended up colliding with the other ship resulting in both ships dropping out of the sky towards the ground to the south of the position the resistance fighters held.

"What do we do now?" Cicadacon asked turning to Ramhorn directly.

"The only thing we can do," Ramhorn sighed heavily, sounding frustrated, "we intervene directly."

"What about Druyd?" Seaclamp asked.

"We do not have enough sparks to activate the new Unicron," Ramhorn answered, "all we would do would be to activate a massive drone. We must intervene in the battle."

"What about the surviving drones from the ships?" Cicadacon wondered, "Wouldn't they be of some help?"

"They will," Ramhorn grumbled, doing nothing to hide his frustration, "but we can not let them decide to retreat to recover from the battle damage they have sustained so far. Therefore, we must attacked now… or else this might as well be marked as a defeat."

At the battle site, cheers went up as the remaining two warships spiraled down to the ground way from the site. Queen arrived in time to watch the warships hit the buildings a block away from the battle site wit a great explosion. Shortly after, both Optimus and Terrorsaur landed in the center of the battle site, looking around the area, and both looking exhausted.

"Are you okay, Optimus?" Snowstalker asked as Optimus asked as the transmetal two ape landed.

"About as well as can be expected," Optimus sighed, "about as well as can be expected. How goes the battle? How is everything?"

"About as well as can be expected," Snowstalker answered.

Queen didn't like that answer and turned to Dinobot and Rapther who were approaching their position.

"Report," Queen ordered.

"What you see is what happened," Dinobot snarled back, "As you demanded of Optimus, we took up attack positions and waited for you and Optimus to return. The Tripredicus Council detected our presence and attacked. Their drones and transformers were of no threat, but their ships formed the third wave which we have only now just survived… and as far as the why is concerned… I would think that to be a miracle."

Again Dinobot's answer unnerved Queen. He made it sound as if the battle was her fault, which made it apparent that he trusted Optimus more.

"If you thought fighting the Tripredicus Council was such a bad idea why did you stay then?" Queen demanded.

"To simply run would have lacked honor," Dinobot growled back, "and you were still beyond radio range. If we had left, you and all the other small strike teams would have run into those three ships, an army of drones, and all of the transformers under the command of the Tripredicus Council… alone, and you would have been annihilated."

"How many have they killed?" Optimus asked.

"Thankfully no one has been destroyed," Rapther answered, "though not for lack of trying. Packadex, Spine, and Blackarachnia are moving the first group of wounded back to the base. Wolffang, Terrorsaur, Cheetor, Dinobot, Snowstalker, and myself have held the rest of the line while waiting for them to return to take the next group of wounded transformers back."

"And now you have us," Queen answered, "We attack as soon as possible."

Dinobot only glared at the honeybee transformer with both mistrust and some frustration. Unfortunately an explosion that knocked them all off their feet prevented there from being any further argument. When they looked up, they saw three large transformers surrounded by up to thirty scaled down tank drones, the likely crew of the first ship that had been brought down.

"I'm afraid, you will not be attacking anyone today," General Ramhorn spoke authoritatively, "let us see how you fare at defensive warfare!"

And with that, the Tripredicus Council members and their supporting drones fired their weapons in one massive salvo.

**To Be Continued…**


	4. Chapter 4

Beast Wars and all characters and things related are copyright and trademark of Hasbro and Mainframe Entertainment. This work, however, is the original work of the author.

Note: This story takes place immediately after "Journeys".

Saving Cybertron, Chapter 4

By TVfan

**Battle Site**

The explosion sent all of the transformers that were still online tumbling back. Thankfully, most of those knocked offline earlier had been moved away from the battle site and most were on their way back to underground base. For Optimus, that was the sole saving grace of the situation.

"The Tripredicus Council, I presume?" Optimus asked to Queen as they ducked behind the makeshift barricade they had raised.

"Yes," Queen responded, "and the drone crew of one of the ships that was downed."

"Is there any difference between these drones and the drones we've fought already?" Cheetor asked.

"They're smarter," Queen responded, "but their armor is just as weak, and their weaponry is actually even weaker the drones we've faced… mostly to insure that they can crew the ships more effectively."

"With the damage we've sustained already," Rapther commented, "their power isn't the concern. It's their numbers. We could tire ourselves destroying the drones, allowing their council members to destroy us or send us into stasis lock."

They ducked down even further as the drones around the Tripredicus Council members began to fire at the buildings, hoping the shots would send enough rubble into the street that Optimus Primal's Maximals and the various Resistance fighters would be buried in debris.

"I'll deal with the Tripredicus Council," Optimus volunteered, "I'm likely the one they want. I trust you can keep their drones busy?"

"Big bot, you likely don't have the fuel reserves to fly," Cheetor told him, fearful of losing the transformer that was a sort of father figure to him, even though Optimus and Cheetor weren't related to each other.

"Yes," Dinobot agreed, "if we are to fight here, it would be best to concentrate and give them an even response. If the drones aren't any better protected then the others we've faced, they should be no problem."

"Plus we might get them to blindly charge us," Terrorsaur commented, "I doubt those drones can climb over the barricade easily."

"How long until the drones from the other ships show?" Rattrap asked, "it's doubtful the crashes of those ships destroyed all of them."

"I think we'd best settle for one problem at a time," Queen commented, "the Tripredicus Council and these drones are here now. We must deal with them. Terrorsaur, can you still fly?"

"Yes," the transmetal two pterosaur answered.

"What are you planning?" Optimus asked.

"Attacking outright would be suicide," Queen told the Maximal commander, "the Tripredicus Council will be expecting such an attack. But… there is still a lot of rubble from the earlier fighting and the buildings haven't been completely destroyed. Terrorsaur and I can sneak back move around them and attack them from the flank. When they turn to fire in confusion, then you can attack."

"Okay," Optimus nodded, "Let us give you some covering fire first. They won't be as likely to notice you slinking off that way."

Generals Seaclamp, Ramhorn, and Cicadacon all smiled as they and the drones from the downed ship fired on the Resistance barricade. While the defeat of their three warships was embarrassing to the Council members, they did do serious damage to the Resistance fighters and their numbers were now greatly reduced. It was only a matter of time before they would all be destroyed. Either they would do such damage to the buildings that they would collapse and bury the resistance fighters completely, or they would destroy their barricades and expose them to their fire directly.

After a few moments, the ease of their siege ended as the resistance fighters came up just enough to return fire. Several drones were destroyed and the Council members were forced to dive behind a nearby wall to give them some cover.

"Spread out," General Ramhorn ordered to the drones near them, "Pin them down!"

The drones began to spread out across the street and firing at the resistance's barricade. Several of them were destroyed, but the resistance fighters didn't have enough numbers to really pin the drones down, and some of their shots missed when the Council Members fired their own weapons at them, particularly at Optimus. They did not however notice a pair of transformers move back to head down an alley near a different side of the resistance's barricade.

"We'll get them now!" General Seaclamp said confidently as he fired his own blaster, catching raptor femme in the shoulder, knocking her back, "They're pinned down and with us here now, we can destroy them all!"

"A shame that we've lost so much to finally crush the resistance," General Cicadacon commented, "they've set our plans back greatly."

"Yes," Ramhorn nodded, "but they have still lost, showing that their hopes for rebellion were completely futile."

"And we will destroy them for it!" Seaclamp smiled.

Queen and Terrorsaur flew in beast mode down a few blocks in the alley, away from the fighting. Their audio receptors easily picked up the sound of the battle as energy weapons blasted at the barricade or drones or the Council members and as rockets and missiles did the same. Once they were a few blocks away in an area that was not yet damaged by the battle, they turned onto a different alley and moved to the main street to peer out at the present firefight.

"They don't notice that we're gone," Terrorsaur spoke as he noticed all the drones standing in the open and making little effort to take any cover. They would be easy targets for the two flying Predicons.

"Just as I thought," Queen nodded, "and they think they've already won… overconfidence is a dangerous thing. Regardless of which faction is experiencing it."

Terrorsaur nodded, not saying anything.

"Let's go," Queen nodded, and moved to the attack.

**Underground Base**

"My word!" Rhinox gasped as Blackarachnia, Packadex, and Spine returned to the base carrying several stasis locked transformers, "What happened?"

"A really BIG battle," Packadex answered, "the Tripredicus Council attacked us shortly after we got to where we were to wait for Optimus and the teams that hit the warehouses."

"And this, sadly, is only the first wave of casualties," Blackarachnia added, "thankfully, though, all their self repair systems seem to be undamaged."

"That'll take time," Rhinox groaned, "How well is the battle going?"

"We have defeated all that they have sent against us," Spine said triumphantly.

"Uh huh," Rhinox nodded, "and how many are still functional? And how many more attacks can the Tripredicus Council send?"

"Not many," Packadex sighed, "but I think the factory raids were successful, so I doubt the Tripredicus Council is in good shape either."

"It's gambling with a lot of lack of knowledge," Rhinox answered, "and we don't have much in the way of CR chambers."

"Maybe their internal repairs will fix things," Spine commented, "You're being way TOO cautious about this. We're winning. What else matters?"

"Life," Rhinox answered, "Destroying all we have won't do anyone any good."

"We can't avoid it all the time, Rhinox," Packadex said weakly, "I don't think Dinobot wanted the fight. They attacked us, and if we fled, they would have either picked us off as we ran or simply waited to hammer the factory teams as they arrived."

That made Rhinox sigh heavily. As much as he would like to blame Dinobot for the battle, given Dinobot's past as a Predicon and his highly combative and militant nature, the rhinoceros transformer had to admit that the transmetal two raptor was a smart warrior. Unless he was pushed to a point where he had no choice, Dinobot wouldn't engage in such a battle.

The real problem in Rhinox's mind was Queen. The bee transformer was pushy and Dinobot even described her as a female version of Megatron. For that reason alone, Rhinox was quite certain that Queen couldn't be fully trusted. Not unless something dramatic happened, and as he began moving the most critically damaged of those brought back into the CR chamber, Rhinox prayed that the battle that Queen had forced them all into would go well.

"Primus help us all," Rhinox sighed to himself and then turned to Blackarachnia's team, "You'd best get going. If this battle is still ongoing, we must save as many of the wounded as possible."

"I would rather be fighting the enemy," Spine grumbled.

Rhinox only shook his head and prayed the present coalition between Optimus's Maximal's and Queen's largely Predicon resistance fighters wouldn't collapse into another series of Cybertronian civil wars when this was all over.

**Elsewhere**

Queen and Terrorsaur were quick to make their move to attack the Tripredicus Council and their drones. They didn't know of their presence and were in no way shape or form ready for any attack on their flanks, and they had already lost several drones to incoming fire from Optimus's compatriots fighting behind the barricade. Both took their robot modes and charged directly for the mass of drones, which were still unaware of their presence.

Both fired all their available weapons as they flew over the Tripredicus Council and their drones. The attack was a blazing success for the resistance leader and the transmetal two pterosaur. Several drones were destroyed before they could even react, and both Seaclamp and Cicadacon took several shots to their shoulders as Queen and Terrorsaur flew overhead. They then destroyed several more drones as they went past the Tripredicus Council's position.

"That'll give them something to think about!" Terrorsaur cheered as the drones began to fire after them, but largely missed.

"Destroy them!" Ramhorn yelled as Queen and Terrorsaur flew down the street.

The drones quickly turned to fire on the 'retreating' transformers while Ramhorn turned to check on his compatriots. Both Seaclamp and Cicadacon had taken some damage from the attack, but it was nothing serious.

"You alright?" Ramhorn asked to his compatriots.

"Fine," Cicadacon grumbled, "but I AM looking forward to disassembling that Resistance femmebot."

They all looked up to see Queen and Terrorsaur circling around, preparing for another strafing run while the drones continued to fire after them. They readied their own weapons when a barrage of rockets and energy destroyed many more drones and did damage to the wall that the Tripredicus Council had taken cover behind. They the turned to see Optimus Primal and his supporters charging them and firing at the drones as they charged.

"So, he'll meet his death face to face!" Seaclamp observed, "Let us destroy them!"

"Yes," Cicadacon agreed.

While Primal's Maximals charged their drones, the Council charged directly for Optimus.

Optimus, meanwhile waited quietly with the others while they waited for Queen and Terrorsaur's flanking attack to begin. They all fired a few scattered shots to make sure that the drones were still focused on them and hoped the other two would arrive soon.

"Man, that Pred femmebot sure is takin' her time," Rattrap groaned as he fired a few shots, taking down one drone and making the two around it scatter.

"We have to hold on," Optimus said, "she'll come through."

"And what makes you say that?" Snowstalker asked.

"The whole battle was her idea," Optimus answered, "Queen is many things apparently, but she does realize that the Tripredicus Council is not to be trusted and that she wants to seem them taken down as much as any of us. I find it hard to believe that anyone would abandon the fight when potentially all of Cybertron is at stake."

"Maybe, but she also had NO problem with offing the Maximal Elders and taking over Cybertron," Rattrap pointed out, "it was only AFTER she figured out the Tripredicus Council wanted to wipe out all Maximals and Predicons not descended from Unicron. Maximals that escaped the initial attack, like Runner, Repair, and Wired were nothing more then convenient recruits to play a 'sob story' about being deceived to. Not every Predicon is honorable, like Chopperface over there."

Dinobot growled, but largely ignored what was as close as he would likely get to being complimented by Rattrap. He looked back to the drones and the three Tripredicus Council leaders to see several massive explosions hit the drones in front of them. They distracted the Council members and destroyed several drones. They all saw Queen and Terrorsaur fly over head and the drones vainly trying to hit them.

"Finally," Cheetor spoke, privately agreeing with Rattrap that their allies didn't move fast enough.

They then watched as the drones turned to fire after Queen and Terrorsaur. With their attention focused elsewhere, that now opened up the opportunity for Optimus's group to attack.

"Now's our chance," Optimus spoke, "I'll deal with the Tripredicus Council, you deal with the drones. Once their all gone, hopefully they'll surrender."

They then fired their own barrage at the Tripredicus Council and charged. The shot destroyed several drones that had left themselves open when they turned to fire after Queen and Terrorsaur. They then rushed forward while the drones and the Tripredicus Council were distracted by the flanking attack. Their distraction did not last long as Seaclamp, Ramhorn, and Cicadacon all turned to face them and several drones also turned.

Optimus had no intention, however, of letting the Tripredicus Council recover from Queen's flanking attack or from the surprise of seeing them charge, and made a flying kick that he landed against Ramhorn's chest, knocking the council member back into Seaclamp.

"Your attempt to destroy Cybertron is over," Optimus said firmly, "Surrender now."

"I was about to demand you do the same thing," Cicadacon said to Optimus, "look at your numbers. You and some of the ones you took on your diversionary raids are the only ones who aren't seriously damaged already… and even if your comrades destroy these drones, remember that we attacked with three ships worth of them. More are one their way from the crash sites of he ships. You'll be destroyed through sheer weight of numbers."

"And who said anything about destroying Cybertron?" Ramhorn answered as he got up and moved to slowly flank Optimus.

"Unicron didn't want to rule Cybertron," Optimus growled, "he wanted to consume it."

"Doesn't mean that Cybertron would have been uninhabitable to Cybertronian life," Seaclamp countered, "though the population would have all been his spawn and servants."

"And that won't do," Optimus answered and blasted Seaclamp back with his blasters.

The shot sent Seaclamp tumbling back, and both Ramhorn and Cicadacon responded by firing at Optimus. Cicadacon's shot hit him the shoulder making him spin, but Ramhorn's missed and actually hit Cicadacon knocking him into one of the nearby tank drones.

"The tough things about crossfires… is that they tend to do damage to the wrong side when the target escapes," Optimus answered as he then landed a punch against Ramhorn.

The Maximal commander then grabbed Ramhorn by the shoulders and kneed him in the gut. Seaclamp, meanwhile recovered and shot at Optimus from behind him.

"The tough thing about being out numbered is that you can not win," Seaclamp retorted.

Queen and Terrorsaur, meanwhile circled around to see the battle that was raging now just outside the main walls to the Tripredicus Council's main compound. The vast majority of the drones that had come with the Council members in this attack were caught off guard and were being destroyed at close range by Optimus's followers. Those that weren't destroyed yet fired desperately, but all too often, the drones ended up either shooting one of their fellows or missing and doing damage to the buildings well away from the current battle zone. But she also noticed the Maximal commander caught in a crossfire between the three Tripredicus Council leaders.

"Do what you can to help the others," Queen ordered, "the Council is MINE!"

"Of course," Terrorsaur answered and dove toward the battle, his weapons ready.

Queen, meanwhile zeroed in on General Cicadacon, who was at the moment the closest threat to Optimus… and strangely a part of her wanted to strike because he was a threat to the Maximal leader, and not simply because the Tripredicus Council was in her way. After all… Primal had helped the Resistance fight. It would be wasteful to throw away an ally at this critical juncture… and the fact that they would likely need Optimus's strength to defeat the other generals under the Tripredicus Council's command.

"Take this you two faced rat!" Queen shouted down at the Tripredicus Council general fired several shots toward him.

Cicadacon looked up to see three of Queen's shots hit him the chest and make him stagger backward, disrupting his fellow Council members efforts to pin Optimus down. He ended up staggering back into Ramhorn, sending his shot wide, while Optimus managed to throw Seaclamp off of him.

"Need any help, Primal?" Queen asked as she landed.

"Couldn't hurt," Optimus replied as the two faced off with the three Tripredicus Council members, who moved to try and flank them.

"It doesn't matter how many help you," Ramhorn swore, "we will win and Unicron will be reborn!"

"Not as long as my spark burns," Optimus said back.

"Then we will be all too happy to extinguish it for you," Seaclamp spoke and fired several shots at Optimus that knocked him back into the wall of a nearby building.

"And you, Queen, will pay for betraying us and resisting against your leaders," Cicadacon finished.

"So you could harvest my spark and sacrifice it to bring Unicron back?" Queen growled, "I'd rather be a traitor then a sacrifice."

**Under the Battlefield**

"They're really going at it up there," Packadex commented as the small team of transformers tasked with moving the stasis locked fighters back to their base returned to the area where they had been left.

None of them were damaged further, but the sounds of the battle above were clearly heard, even through layers of metal and concrete.

"Wish we could be up there, dishing out some punishment on them," Spine grumbled, sounding resentful that they were taxed to such a menial mission.

"Forget about fighting for a moment and let's get these guys back to the base," Packadex answered, "we can't let the tunneler drones get them."

Blackarachnia, meanwhile, ignored the debate between the two of them. While she was a Predicon and not entirely opposed to combat, the transmetal two spider was not the type to rush into a fight, with anyone. Being discrete was always Blackarachnia's top skill. But, with the exception of Silverbolt, neither did she have any real care for the wounded transformers. She'd help them, as that was what the fuzor would likely do, but that wasn't the point.

The argument between Spine and Packadex was becoming annoying, however, and Blackarachnia was more then willing to tell Spine to go and get himself slagged if only for the peace and quiet.

"Would you two knock it off!" Blackarachnia growled after a few moments, "I'm tired of listening to you two argue and whine. Better to get the job done quickly."

"But this is boring," Spine grumbled, "You should understand that."

"I do, but I'm not about to cross claws with Dinobot over the job," Blackarachnia answered, "and your squabbling is bound to attract tunneler drones."

As if on cue, three tunneler drones came through a side wall and turned toward the group and the wounded resistance fighters where they lay.

"Told you," Blackarachnia grumbled and opened up with her machine guns on the closest drone, destroying it easily.

"At least this is something WORTH doing," Spine answered and destroyed the second drone with his own blaster.

Packadex managed to grab and lifted the tunneler drone that was trying to attack one of the stasis locked transformers that had been moved beneath the streets of Cybertron where the real battle still raged. He then threw the drone further down the tunnel they were in. It landed on its side and in a position where its drive wheels could propel it forward.

"There, now we can get back to work," Packadex spoke and began to move one of the wounded transformers onto the makeshift travois that they had set up to move the first group of wounded.

Blackarachnia did the same in a fairly calm silence, while Spine sighed and followed the lead of the two transformers with him.

**The Battlefield**

Optimus and Queen both rolled to avoid a series of attempted flanking shots fired at them by the Tripredicus Council members. The overall fight was going well, as while the drones did have great numbers still, without superior armor, armament, or sentient intelligence, the resistance fighters were easily dealing with them, though there was still some damage taken. The real fight, however, was with the three that were "leading" the force.

As he came out of his roll, Optimus came up to a knee and fired his blasters at Seaclamp, throwing the council member through the large metal gate that protected the Tripredicus Council compound.

"You'll pay for that!" Cicadacon roared and fired two shots at each of his opponents, while Ramhorn fired towards the area he believed Optimus would move to if he dodged.

Optimus did dodge and the shot hit him in the gut, knocking him down. Cicadacon's two shots at Queen took out her wings, sending her crashing to the ground and taking away her best advantage.

"We had thought you more modest then this Primal," Ramhorn spoke, "or do you honestly think we are so weak that we will simply fall before you when you appear… we RULE Cybertron for a reason."

"Through deceit and capitalizing on other's bravery," Queen challenged, "You three didn't even formulate this scheme until AFTER Megatron stole the disks from the Maximals, and you seek to destroy BOTH factions."

"Remember that the Autobots WON the Great War, traitor," Cicadacon growled, "that left the Decipticons devastated… and by extension… the Predicon Alliance has never been able to challenge the Maximals directly. A wise commander will always wait for the right opportunity and will seek to find ways to weaken his foe in more indirect ways…"

"And then crushes his opponent once he is in a position of superior strength!" Ramhorn finished and threw a punch at Optimus.

Optimus, however, managed to dodge the attack, grab the over extended arm and then slung Ramhorn like a discus into Cicadacon before the other Councilmember could fire on Queen again.

Meanwhile, the rest of the Maximals were finishing up the group of drones that had appeared with the Tripredicus Council members. The drones weren't seriously tough individual opponents, but the strain of the earlier battles and the sheer number of drones counted in the favor of Tripredicus Council. Wolffang and Snowstalker, the ones that had sustained the most damage in the earlier fighting had been knocked into stasis lock as they battled their way through the drones. Several of the others looked like they were close to it, and wouldn't be able to take much more.

As Dinobot sliced through one of the last drones, he then looked around to check the situation. Optimus had just thrown Ramhorn into Cicadacon, sending both Tripredicus Council members tumbling through hole in the walls around their citadel. Queen stood nearby, but had clearly taken damage as a result of the present fighting.

"Looks like they have everything in hand," Rapther commented as the transmetal female moved to stand beside Dinobot.

"For now," Dinobot nodded, "although these drones were only the crew of one of the three ships that were defeated. The others are likely to make their way here."

"So what do ya plan to do, Chopperface?" Rattrap asked as he approached, "shouldn't we be helping Optimus?"

Dinobot glanced back to the fight between Optimus, Queen, and the Tripredicus Council members. To a great extent it didn't look like they really needed help, but that could all be considered relative. If the drone crews from the other two ships arrived soon, even Optimus could be overpowered by their numbers.

"We must take defensive positions near our original barricades," Dinobot growled after a few moments, "Insure that the other drones can not reinforce the masters with our backs turned."

"But… Big bot…" Cheetor spoke, referring to Optimus.

"Is doing fine," Dinobot answered, "and Queen doesn't appear to be seriously damaged… but their backs are still turned to where the other two ships crashed. The drones from those ships will arrive soon."

"And you expect us to beat off two hundred drones as we are?" Runner asked, "Wolffang and Snowstalker were both sent into stasis lock by this group, and all of us have sustained damage."

"Yeah, couldn't we just waste these Council guys and then leave, destroying the drones at our leisure?" Rattrap wondered.

"That depends on the drones giving us the time to defeat them," Dinobot answered, "and given that while Optimus and Queen are doing well, they have yet to defeat their opponents suggests that the Tripredicus Council would not fall quickly enough to let us deal with the drones in a more leisurely manner."

"That doesn't mean that they can't turn the tide," Rapther warned, "especially if they lead Optimus and Queen inside their citadel."

"It is a calculated risk," Dinobot admitted, "we're close enough that he can radio us for help should the situation become desperate…"

"You better hope that situation never arises, Chopperface," Rattrap answered, "As I ain't following NO Predicons if we lose Optimus."

Dinobot was unable to answer as a series of laser shots came their way from the direction of the barricades they had left to support Optimus and Queen's attack on the Tripredicus Council. Turning their heads, they all saw that the two hundred drones from the other two ships had now arrived at the battlefield and were moving to support their "leaders".

"Slag," Dinobot growled the remaining resistance fighters quickly took cover behind the same walls that the Tripredicus Council had been behind before that fight moved into the close quarters fight that it was now between Optimus, Queen, and the Council members.

The fight wasn't over.

"Generals! In here!" Seaclamp shouted to his fellow Tripredicus Council members after Optimus sent Ramhorn and Cicadacon into the inside of their compound.

Seeing Optimus and his supporters gain some advantage against them in the open made him see that in order to beat Primal, the most powerful of the resistance fighters, they needed to lure him away from the fighting in the street. The drones would deal with the other resistance fighters.

"We can't let them get inside!" Queen shouted and rushed after them, firing on them as she went.

Optimus was quick to run after her, but failed to have any real success in catching the three generals as they made it safely inside.

"Great, just great," Queen answered, "They got away."

"Not yet," Optimus answered, "they're likely wanting to draw us into a trap."

Optimus then blasted the door in, giving them a dark and seemingly empty hallway to walk into.

"We should get the others," Optimus spoke when he suddenly heard the sounds of battle erupting on the street behind them again.

"I think they'll be busy for awhile," Queen commented, "we're doing this alone."

"Well that's just Prime," Optimus gave a frustrated groan.

**To Be Continued…**


	5. Chapter 5

Beast Wars and all characters and things related are copyright and trademark of Hasbro and Mainframe Entertainment. This work, however, is the original work of the author.

Note: This story takes place immediately after "Journeys".

Saving Cybertron, Chapter 5

By TVfan

**Tripredicus Council Headquarters**

Optimus and Queen moved slowly into the dark hallways of the Tripredicus Council's headquarters. They had failed in their attack outside and had now fled inside where they hoped either the maze of hallways or some internal trap would stop the Maximal leader and the resistance leader.

"Where do you suppose they've gone?" Optimus asked as they moved down the hallway.

"Likely to whatever ship they have available to get them to wherever they have the live sparks that they stole," Queen answered as she moved more urgently then Optimus, "They have a hanger in the basement. We have to get there quickly."

"In the basement?" Optimus asked.

"The entire headquarters will open like a pair of hanger doors," Queen answered, "Now come on."

Queen rushed forward before Optimus could voice his concerns and was hit by a pair of laser blasts that seemingly came out off nowhere.

"Won't they have security systems?" Optimus questioned.

"Slag," Queen cursed, "they're going to get away."

"If the council is anything like Megatron, I doubt it," Optimus answered thinking back to countless battles in the Beast Wars where the Predicon leader didn't retreat until he was not only beaten but cornered as well.

"Megatron is a fool," Queen reminded him.

Optimus blasted the concealed laser cannons that had knocked Queen down. Queen then continued down the hallway.

"Do you know the way down there?" Optimus asked.

"Yes," Queen answered, "Remember, I served them before I realized that they only intended for the Spawn of Unicron to live."

Queen then fired her own weapon at a series of points along the wall, where more concealed weapons were, and then the control panel to a door which opened it. Optimus only looked on in surprise.

"We need to hurry," Queen answered, "We'll all be dead if they start the rocket engines on the ship."

Queen then rushed through the door and down a flight of stairs. Optimus sighed, sensing that something was being hidden from him, but followed anyway. He couldn't afford to let the Tripredicus Council reactivate Unicron. That would be disastrous for all Cybertron.

Meanwhile at the bottom of the flight of stairs, the Tripredicus Council was rapidly preparing to evacuate their headquarters.

"I can't believe we're running! Running from the resistance," General Cicadacon growled as he and General Seaclamp loaded a few pieces of equipment that thy would need in the area.

"We do not have time for this," General Ramhorn answered while he worked on a computer panel that would program the escape ship they intended to use.

All of them had taken damage from Optimus and Queen's weapons. They were certain they'd inflicted damage of their own, but they didn't think it would be enough to stop them.

"Can our defenses hold them off?" Seaclamp asked, "Queen knows about our base… and its defenses."

"It will slow them down," Ramhorn answered, "but not long enough if you do not hurry. We're already going to be leaving a lot behind here anyway."

Seaclamp and Cicadacon sighed and continued with their work.

**Outside**

In the main battle area, Dinobot was left tough situation. Rapther, Rattrap, Runner, Cheetor, and Terrorsaur stood beside him, largely alone against a host of drones that crewed the ships that Tripredicus Council had sent against them earlier in the battle. Their only protection were the buildings they could hide behind, or the barricade that they had erected earlier.

"We gotta push them back," Rapther spoke after a few moments as she fired a barrage of rockets at the attacking drones, destroying one or two of them.

"Are you nuts?" Rattrap gasped, "we're barely holding on as we are."

"And they're still advancing," Cheetor added as he fired a few blasts and destroyed a couple of drones that tried to rush their barricade, "we might actually need to retreat."

"But the bulk of our wounded and offline bots are under the alley we came out of," Rapther answered as she dove down to avoid being hit by several laser blasts that were shot at the raptor femme-bot.

"And we can not withdraw," Dinobot grumbled as he realized Rapther's point, "they'd come in behind Optimus and Queen and they'd both be destroyed."

Dinobot then fired his optics laser and destroyed a drone that looked like it was going to take cover in the alley.

"Perhaps we could call Spine's team in to man the alley," Terrorsaur suggested, "It would trap the drones between two points of fire, and since they aren't damaged as badly as we are, we can easily destroy the drones."

"And what if they're not there?" Runner asked, "What then?"

Dinobot only sighed.

"Rattrap, Rapther, keep the fight in this general area," Dinobot instructed, "pull back if you have to, and if you can protect Wolffang and Snowstalker as well. Runner, come with me."

"What?" Runner gasped.

"Where are you going?" Rapther demanded.

"To do something… noble," Dinobot said slowly, and leaped over the barricade carrying runner with him.

"We're all gonna die!" Runner screamed.

"THAT IS MY LINE!" Rattrap yelled back at him, and then glanced at the others, "What? It is."

Dinobot's charge took many of the drones by surprise and he destroyed several with his optics laser and ended up slicing those closest to the alley from which the Maximal and resistance fighters had come from. He could have done more if he weren't carrying Runner in his other hand.

"We can't hold here," Runner protested as Dinobot set him down.

"There is no 'we'," Dinobot snarled, "I will hold them here. You will go below ground and get the others."

"But the wounded? You?" Runner asked as he fired his weapon toward the attacking drones.

"The wounded are the ones I am defending," Dinobot answered, "and if I die in doing so, then that is my fate and I may join the Matrix with full military honors, now… GET MOVING!"

Runner only gulped and moved away from the transmetal two raptor. He then quickly went to the 'sewer' hole that the strike team had emerged from. As he arrived in the underground, he found most of the stasis locked transformers were still there and that the team assigned to get them back to the base was not there… which meant he had running to do.

**Tripredicus Council Headquarters**

Queen rushed as quickly as she could to go down the long flight of stairs that laid to the basement hanger of the Tripredicus Council. They had to be stopped before they could escape. To her, they were traitors to he Predicon cause and could not be allowed to live. She was fairly certain that Optimus wanted to stop them to prevent Unicron from being reborn.

"Come on," Queen urged, "even if they don't have enough sparks to restore Unicron, they'll gather reinforcements from the colonies that the Tripredicus Council has taken over or from other parts of Cybertron!"

"There are other resistance groups on Cybertron?" Optimus asked as he ran.

Queen didn't answer as a large spinning saw blade suddenly came out from the side of one of the walls, with the obvious goal of cutting one of the two transformers in half. Queen barely got past it, and Optimus had to blast it at close range to avoid running into it. As he passed where the saw blade was, Optimus stepped on a pressure sensor that ended up extended several long metal spikes that nearly impaled Queen and forced her to fall back.

"Blast it!" Queen cursed, "I thought we could beat these traps."

"We can," Optimus answered, "More then likely their sole purpose is to slow us down."

"So far it's doing EXACTLY that!" Queen answered, "they know they've been beaten. Their drones may destroy one or two of the others, but they don't have enough to get through them quickly and defeat us as well. And they've proven that despite their greater power then their drones, they couldn't do THAT much against us. They're fleeing."

"And we'll get them," Optimus answered, "No doubt they've also got a horde of information that our earlier spy missions didn't get that they are desperately trying to take with them. Make sure there is nothing we can use…"

"Are you always this optimistic?" Queen questioned, "they could easily flee and turn Cybertron's defense satellites and destroy us in a few keystrokes."

"Comes with the name, I guess," Optimus answered as he began using his great strength to bend the metal spikes, clearing a route for them to move down the stairs again.

Even with Optimus's strength, it took them time to move down the steps through the like of thick metal spikes. But as the reached the end of it, they heard voices coming from the bottom of the stairs, which meant that while the Tripredicus Council was fleeing the area, they hadn't left yet. Primal's optimism was holding true, so far.

"Come on," Queen urged as they finally reached the bottom of the stairs and rushed into the room beyond.

The two found Seaclamp and Cicadacon moving boxes and data disks toward a small rocket like craft while Ramhorn was working on some computer program, likely to program the rocket.

"They've caught us!" Cicadacon raised the alarm.

"That's right," Queen said with a smirk, and fired her blaster at Cicadacon and Seaclamp, destroying both of the containers they were carrying.

**Underground Tunnels**

Runner ran hard through the maze of tunnels that the strike team had taken to get to where the battle site was now, assuming that those carrying the wounded and stasis locked transformers would take the same route. He ran as hard as he could, hoping he'd run into the group as they returned to move more of the wounded back to the base. If they were already moving some, Dinobot would have to hold out on his own longer.

He ended up running all the way back to where the base entrance was when he ran into Blackarachnia coming up the stairs from the underground base. The resulting collision sent both of them falling to the ground.

"Watch where you're going!" Blackarachnia scolded as she pulled herself up.

"What are you doing here, Runner?" Spine questioned as he came out of their hidden base.

"We need help!" Runner said urgently, "they sent the capital ships after us… they're down, but the drones that manned those ships are attacking. Dinobot is holding them off, but only just barely… they could break into the sewers where our stasis locked comrades are."

Packadex was the one gasped as he came into the chamber above the base.

"You are needed to help," Runner pleaded, "before Dinobot is killed."

"That saurian is known for making suicidal stands," Blackarachnia dismissed it, "we have our orders to get the wounded back to the base."

"I am under orders as well, and if you don't help, his suicidal stand will be in vain," Runner answered, "You MUST help!"

"If it finally gives us a shot at battle, I'll do it!" Spine answered, "You can all rust for all I care since you're cowards!"

Packadex glared at the Predicon resistance fighter and shook his head.

"I will go as well," Packadex spoke, "If they break into where our wounded are, our casualties will be worse."

"Good," Runner said, "they're already attacking where Dinobot is!"

**The Battle Site**

And at the battle site, things were far more desperate then anything Runner could describe. The drones had more then enough numbers to attack in both directions, while Dinobot was stuck in a fairly exposed position. His transmetal two armor protected him fairly well, but there was no telling how long it would protect him. The others meanwhile continued to fire away at the drones, but they simply didn't have enough fire power to distract many of tem from going after the male raptor.

"Come on! We gotta do more!" Rapther yelled as she stood up and fired a barrage of rockets at the drones.

Her shots destroyed a few and forced others to dive away and duck behind what little cover they had, but did not do enough to divert attention away from where Dinobot was. Several of the drones then returned fire and knocked Rapther back.

"Will you get down," Rattrap urged, "You may be a transmetal, but that don't make you invincible."

"We gotta do more," Rapther urged.

"You got no argument about what we have to do," Rattrap answered as he fired a few shots, which only slowed the drones advance, "what I'm talkin' about is capacity. I don't think we can do more…"

"But… Dinobot!" Rapther spoke and fired another barrage of rockets.

"He's ignited his own recycling pyre," Terrorsaur snarled, "we'd best to look after ourselves!"

Rapther only snarled back, but managed to restrain herself from attacking the transmetal two pterosaur.

"I hate to admit it, but he's right," Cheetor commented, "we could drive them back and save our wounded, but that will leave Big Bot vulnerable… Queen as well. We may have to take Snowstalker and Wolffang and go to a more defendable position."

"No, we can't sacrifice either," Rapther insisted.

"I don't think we can," Cheetor answered as he blasted a drone that had managed to begin climbing the barricade, "we gotta pull back and hope Dinobot gets help."

Rapther looked toward Dinobot's position and sighed heavily. The teams moving the wounded transformers would likely be able to prevent the drones from destroying their wounded comrades. They would have to pull back.

"Hey, lizard-lady," Rattrap called as he had lifted up Wolffang's stasis locked form, "You wanna give us a hand here? Terrorsaur and Spots can cover us while we pull back to the hole that Optimus and Queen blew in their wall."

"Of course," Rapther sighed and turned to lift up the stasis locked body of Snowstalker. She took one last glance in Dinobot's direction and then ran after Rattrap.

While this was going on, Dinobot, himself, was not in a good position. On his own and with no protection, he had no cover to hide behind. The one thing that went for him was that the alley was narrow. He could easily block the attempt by the drones to advance, but since he could not find cover he was taking multiple shots from the attacking drones. His armor was holding, but he didn't know how much longer that would work.

Two drones rushed him, only to be sliced in half by his talons, but it quickly proved that the attack was a decoy for three others that hung back a little bit. They hit him with all they had, knocking Dinobot to a knee. He returned fire with his optics laser, but only destroyed one of them. The other three fired again, forcing Dinobot to roll backward. They had nearly pushed him past the sewer entrance that they had earlier emerged from.

"You will not win," Dinobot swore defiantly as the remaining two drones that were driving him back continued to advance on him.

He could also see that the others were not destroying enough of the attacking drones fast enough to take any pressure off of him. Judging by their overall numbers, he guessed that they were being driven back, just as he was, through sheer weight of numbers.

"You will NOT WIN!" Dinobot swore and charged forward.

He blasted three drones with his optics laser and sliced another two with his talons. But, in forcing them back he exposed himself to more fire and after reaching the street that they had earlier battled on, he was hit by nearly twenty different laser blasts and was knocked back several feet. He landed on his back and then skidded back several feet. Once he finally stopped, the transmetal two raptor had fallen into stasis lock. The drones then advanced confident that they had no more obstacles to deal with.

It was then that Runner returned to the scene. The others were following behind him, but could not match his speed. He took a shot from the drones upon emerging from the underground, but he quickly managed to recover. As Runner returned fire, and destroyed three drones, he noticed the temporarily offline Dinobot.

"Hold on," Runner told the offline raptor, "help is on the way."

**Tripredicus Council Headquarters**

"NO! I won't let it end this way!" Ramhorn growled as opened a hidden compartment and pulled out a heavy laser rifle while Cicadacon and Seaclamp recovered from the initial attack from Queen upon their arrival inside their hidden hanger.

His shot hit Queen in the side and threw her against the wall. It bought no time however, as Optimus turned and fired his own weapons in Ramhorn's chest throwing him back against the far wall and then fired on Cicadacon and Seaclamp as they prepared to fire on him. Those shots sent the two Tripredicus Council members tumbling into the rocket ship they had waiting.

"Can they escape in that thing?" Optimus asked as Queen got back to her feet.

"Unless the main countdown's begun, they may be able to leave their headquarters, but where they end up and in how many pieces is another story," Queen answered, "Rocket ships were designed as fast escape ships, usually only used as escape pods on larger ships. They have great acceleration, but without proper guidance pre-programmed into their computers, even the fastest transformer can not control them."

"I'll wonder why they even use them later," Optimus grumbled, "We've got to keep them from the panel that Ramhorn was at."

"That could be a problem," Queen warned, "launch rooms like this have at least FOUR such panels."

"Well that's just Prime," Optimus growled and lunged forward towards Ramhorn, who was still the only Council Member outside the rocket ship.

He arrived there just as Ramhorn reached a second computer panel. As the Council Member moved to press a few buttons, Optimus fired his blasters at the panel. One of the shots hit Ramhorn's forearm and spun him around like a top while the other hit the panel itself, destroying it. As Optimus got closer, he then landed a punch against Ramhorn that practically crushed the Council member into the wall.

"You AREN'T leaving," Optimus said firmly as he pinned Ramhorn against the wall.

"You're sure of that?" Ramhorn shot back as he struggled against Optimus, finding the transmetal two gorilla to be stronger then he was.

It was then that Optimus noticed a loud rumbling noise coming from behind him.

While Optimus charged after Ramhorn, Queen fired on Cicadacon and Seaclamp, pinning them down inside the rocket ship. Battling damage from the earlier fight, most of Queen's shots went wide of the intended target, but they did serve to keep the two Council members pinned down. The managed to return some fire toward her, but having to expose themselves to do so, Queen was able to dodge their attacks.

After dodging a few shots, Queen suddenly saw the rocket ship's engines come to life, spraying the ground around them with rocket exhaust and shaking just about everything in the room. For Queen, it helped because both Cicadacon and Seaclamp ended up falling to the floor of the rocket ship, but the activation of its engines still represented a problem.

"Primal! What is going on?" Queen hollered toward the Maximal commander, who was wrestling with Ramhorn.

"I think I've stopped him from programming the launch," Optimus answered, "but my shots have short circuited everything."

Queen then checked the panel behind her. Optimus was right, there was no formal launch programming, but the engines had been started. It presented both an opportunity and a threat. They needed to open everything the engine exhaust wouldn't destroy them all, but the un-programmed launch would destroy Seaclamp and Cicadacon. Queen then fired a series of shots into the rocket ship's interior. The resulting explosions started a fire inside the compartment, and gave her the distraction to approach the panel.

"Now to put an end to the Council," Queen commented as she began activating the various commands to open the hanger and to actually launch the rocket ship, while obviously neglecting to put in any specific programming for the ship to follow.

"What are you doing?" Optimus asked.

"Giving their rocket ship an unprogrammed launch," Queen answered, "when it crashes, it will solve at least two of our problems."

"NO!" Ramhorn growled, managing to finally throw Optimus off him.

"Queen, no, they have to stand trial," Optimus gasped as he landed near her.

"That is a Maximal idea, NOT a Predicon one," Queen answered, "and it is too late. The launch sequence has begun."

**The Alley**

Blackarachnia was the first of the group that Runner had been sent to get to arrive at the battle site. She quickly found the trouble that the rest of the 'fighters' had run into. Runner had managed to erect a small barricade from the parts of destroyed drones, but he was now trading shots with up to fifty more, and like Dinobot, had sustained heavy damage in doing so.

"Wonderful," Blackarachnia grumbled, "Lizard boy thinks he has everything under control, and it all goes straight to the pit… guess I better save them."

Spine and Packadex were right behind her and were quick to move forward.

"So, how will we slag 'em?" Spine questioned as he came forward.

"You and Packadex try to pin them down," Blackarachnia instructed, "I'll try to distract them."

"You'd be in out line of fire," Packadex pointed out, "suppose they use you as a shield?"

"They're drones, I doubt they have that level of intelligence, and I'm trusting you to shot at the drones that aren't close to me," Blackarachnia answered, "and we don't have time for debate, just do as I say."

"What about me?" Runner asked, looking ready to go offline soon.

"You're the reserve," Blackarachnia sighed, "if they somehow find a way to get around us, you're to be on the look out for it, okay?"

"Sure," Runner slowly nodded.

Runner pulled back while Spine and Packadex moved forward to fire at the drones from behind the makeshift barricade. As the two larger transformers began firing, Blackarachnia moved back slightly to prepare for what would have to be a fairly athletic move on her part. She quickly leaped up the sides of the buildings that made up the alley until she had enough height that she could easily leap out into the center of the street and amongst the drones. They appeared smarter then those they'd fought before, but still rather dumb and poorly protected.

She followed that with a leap toward the street and produced a blaster and fired a line of cyber webbing to swing across the street. As she did so, she fired her machine guns on the various drones that she could hit while above them. This actually destroyed several drones and lead to the destruction of several more as Spine and Packadex destroyed the drones that turned to target the transmetal two spider.

"They're better then the standard drone," Blackarachnia commented as she then leaped down and sliced through one of the last three remaining drones in the area, "but not by much."

"Maybe but they've still forced the others back," Packadex said, pointing to the other edge of the street where most of the drones were still driving the rest of the combat team.

"More fun to have then," Spine shrugged that off, "let's go!"

The other two sighed and moved forward. If they attacked the other formation of drones from the rear, they'd aid the rest of the combat team before they were destroyed. Or at least, that was the plan.

**Tripredicus Council Headquarters Courtyard**

In the courtyard, things seemed rather desperate. There were no mounted laser cannons from the headquarters building firing at them, but Cheetor and Terrorsaur could only fire a few shouts out through the hole they had fled through. Rapther and Rattrap formed a second line of defense with the offline Wolffang and Snowstalker nearby.

"We gotta do something else," Terrorsaur commented, "this way is too slow. Only two of us can use this hole, and they have enough to keep us pinned down. Let me fly…"

"We've all taken serious damage," Rapther growled, "you go flying and you'll expose yourself to a lot more fire."

"Well I'm open to suggestions here," Terrorsaur answered, "remember this is their base. Eventually they'll figure out they can open the main gates by command."

As if on cue, the main gates to the Tripredicus Council Headquarters began to open.

"You had to open your mouth and say that, didn't ya?" Rattrap gave a groan and blasted the two drones that had opened the gate.

"Forget about assigning blame," Rapther growled as she fired her rockets at the next two that approached, "just make your last stand worthy of the Matrix!"

"Oh sure, that makes me feel much better," Rattrap grumbled, as a sudden rumbling took everyone by surprise.

"What is that?" Cheetor asked as he blasted a pair of drones that weren't moving for the gate.

"It sounds like it's coming from below us," Rapther said in a surprised voice.

They then looked over to see the Tripredicus Council building begin to literally split in half, as if the building itself was a transformer. They also began to feel the ground they were standing on begin to move as well.

"What is this?" Rapther gasped, too stunned to realize that opening 'doors' had insured the destruction of most of the drones as they went into the area below the doors.

"They're doors, but to what?" Cheetor spoke.

"A hanger most likely, but why would they put a hanger UNDER a building?" Rattrap answered.

No one immediately answered, and soon noticed that the moving 'door' did not move the transformers standing on top of it. If they didn't get out of the area, they would fall into the basement level of the Tripredicus Council's headquarters as well.

"Time to go," Rattrap then spoke.

"But there are still a lot of drones out there that are beyond these 'doors'," Cheetor pointed out.

"Would you rather fall into the Council's dungeon?" Rattrap shot back.

"Point taken," Cheetor admitted, "grab Wolffang and Snowstalker and let's go!"

**Tripredicus Council Headquarters, Hanger**

Optimus was completely frustrated with the situation. Seaclamp and Cicadacon were burning inside a Predicon Rocket Ship which was getting ready to launch, but had no flight programming. From what Queen had told him, the craft was getting ready to go out of control into a building, the street, or possibly one of the defense satellites, which would result in the destruction of the craft and any on board. Ramhorn was the only member of the Tripredicus council not on the craft, but unless he joined Optimus and Queen in fleeing the area soon, he would be burned to a crisp.

Optimus then looked up to see the roof and the structure above them beginning to open up like they were a pair of hanger doors.

"Come on, monkey, we got to get out of here before that ship blasts off!" Queen urged and rushed toward the stairs.

"But… Ramhorn!" Optimus answered.

"Is slag," Queen answered, "do you think he's about to go with us?"

Optimus considered the retort and then looked back to see Ramhorn extinguishing the fires inside the rocket ship and climbing in.

"Can he do anything?" Optimus asked.

"Not enough to save themselves," Queen answered, "Come on!"

Queen then grabbed Optimus and ran out, to find tat the opening doors had removed the stairs as an option to follow.

"Slag it! We're trapped down here!" Queen cursed.

Before she could say anything more, she felt Optimus plow into her from behind. She glanced back to see that he had converted to vehicle mode and was flying out.

"Hang on," Optimus instructed.

"Can you move?" Ramhorn asked the other two council members, "Primal has fried the circuitry and Queen has set the ship to launch with no programming…"

"Do you think we haven't been trying?" Cicadacon growled back, "Queens fire on us ignited everything we had in the ship. We CAN NOT move!"

"Hold on then," Ramhorn answered and began pulling both other Council Members out of the ship, "we'll manage to escape somehow."

**Outside**

"Whoa! Look at it!" Runner gasped as he looked to see the entire Tripredicus Council Headquarters building split in to and begin to open, "What is that…"

"Some form of escape, no doubt," Blackarachnia answered, "which isn't our concern. We have the drones to deal with. Runner, guard the alley."

"Right," Runner nodded while Blackarachnia, Spine, and Packadex ran after the drones that were earlier going after the other members of the combat team.

Blackarachnia lead her two compatriots to the street to find a running fight. The other part of the combat team was being forced to run by the drones, mostly because they didn't have enough numbers to stand and fight and because each of them had sustained enough damage that even the under-armed drones stood a good chance of winning the engagement. Rattrap and Rapther were carrying Snowstalker and Wolffang away from a hole in the wall.

"They must of have tried to make a stand in the courtyard of the Council's headquarters," Packadex surmised as he took notice of the shattered drones in the basement of the building, now exposed to them all.

"That can be dealt with later," Blackarachnia answered, "destroying the drones is more important."

"For the fun of it," Spine laughed and charged forward, firing on the drones as he went.

Ahead of them, Rapther and Rattrap lead the retreating group of resistance fighters. Mostly because they were having to carry the offline bodies of Wolffang and Snowstalker. Terrorsaur and Cheetor managed to provide some covering fire, but there were just too many drones, and there was no cover for them.

"Man this is just getting worse and worse," Rattrap grumbled, "Anyone find a way to the underground, yet?"

"I could if I could fly," Terrorsaur grumbled as he destroyed a drone that got close. He had tried to fly, but found the damage he had sustained was more then enough to keep him from flying.

"Look for an alley," Cheetor urged, "We might be able to make a stand there."

Then as he looked back he noticed he saw several drones toward the rear of their formation suddenly explode.

"Something's hitting them from behind!" Cheetor exclaimed.

"It must be Dinobot and the others!" Rapther spoke, sounding hopeful, although she had no chance to hear a response as a drone hit her in the back with a shot, which threw her into a nearby building and sent her into stasis lock.

"Great," Rattrap grumbled, as their whole formation stopped.

With Rapther down, they couldn't transport all of the offline bots with them, and if they were left behind, the drones would destroy them before the group coming to their rescue could destroy the drones.

"Hold 'em off!" Rattrap yelled, "hopefully we'll hold them off long enough for the others to finish 'em off."

Stopping didn't help their group all that much. Terrorsaur was hit by a couple of shots before the resistance fighters could even fire and was sent into stasis lock as well.

"I think this is the end, Rattrap," Cheetor said nervously.

"Haven't I been sayin' that all along?" Rattrap asked back.

The destroyed a handful of drones, but caught in the open with no cover, and having already sustained damage, the drones managed to send both Cheetor an Rattrap into stasis lock before Blackarachnia, Spine, and Packadex destroyed the last of the drones.

"Aw… no more?" Spine complained, almost as if he was looking for a larger battle.

"More then enough," Packadex told him, "Let's start getting these guys back to the others."

The elephant transformer then lifted up Rapther and Snowstalker.

"The faster this is done, the faster everything will be done," Packadex told them.

Blackarachnia said nothing, but did nod.

**Street Level…**

Optimus set Queen down on the ground and then turned as if to go back into the Headquarters building.

"What are you doing?" Queen demanded.

"I'm going back for the Council members," Optimus answered, "You may have no qualms with killing them, but I will not let anyone die if I can avoid it."

"NO!" Queen yelled and jumped on Optimus's back, "the countdown has already begun. That ship will launch in a few nano-clicks! If you go back down there, you'll be destroyed with them!"

In the 'basement' Ramhorn was desperately trying to drag his fellow Tripredicus Council members out. He had just gotten to the area where the 'stairs' had been when he noticed the problem.

"No!" Ramhorn gasped, "no, the stairs are gone as part of the 'hanger' doors opening!"

He then heard a computerized voice speak the countdown.

"Ten."

"We're trapped!" Ramhorn lamented.

"Nine… Eight…"

He rushed back to the programming console.

"Seven… Six…"

"Perhaps I can shut the hanger doors," Ramhorn commented, "the doors to the stairs should protect us… I hope…"

"Five… four… three…"

Ramhorn pressed a few buttons desperately.

"Two… One…"

At street level, Optimus returned to robot mode as he heard the screams of the Tripredicus Council and watched as the rocket ship took off into the night sky. The Maximal leader looked somewhat depressed at what happened.

"Relax, Primal," Queen told him, "It's over. We won."

"We could have still captured them," Optimus sighed, "after all, they knew where all the sparks that they had stolen are, and who is guarding them. With them defeated, we could have…"

"They wouldn't have told us even if we had a thousand stellar cycles," Queen answered, "and most of those sparked transformers that still serve them are fanatical in their defense of the Tripredicus Council's ideals. They won't hand over the sparks regardless of what we could 'make' the Council order them."

"Would they try to reactive Unicron?" Optimus asked.

"I wouldn't think so," Queen answered, "because without orders, it wouldn't be for the glory of the Tripredicus Council… to be honest those three have very much in common with Megatron. They don't like anyone having an opinion of their own."

"So, Cybertron is safe," Optimus sighed.

"For now," Queen answered, "finding where they stashed the sparks will be a big thing, and we will need to find some way to make sure that some 'lieutenant' doesn't get overzealous… but yes. For now, Cybertron is safe."

**The End…**


End file.
